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The Japanese residents
of Taiwan were alarmed; they did not want to lose their special
status in the colony. Itagaki left Taiwan shortly after the
inauguration of the Society and the Governor-General promptly
forced the Assimilation Society to disband one month later (January,
1915). The disbanding of the society brought the organized activities
of Taiwanese assimilation activist to a close, throughout the
duration of the occupation period.
Akashi Motojiro (Governor-General
from 1918-1919) and later, Governor-General Den Kenjiro (1919-1923)
publicize their visions of the ultimate goal of assimilation
of the natives. Although their concept of assimilation was not
identical to that of Itagaki (they did not envision complete
equality for the Taiwanese) their primary argument was the same:
assimilation of the Taiwanese subjects would enable the expansion
of Japanese influence in East.
The Assimilation Movement of 1914
was the first time Taiwanese had engaged in political activism
since the early resistance movements of 1895. Following the
abolishment of the Assimilation Society in 1915, a wave of resistance
began to spread throughout Taiwan. Many of the new resistance
leaders emerge from the population of Japanese-educated youths.
Students brought up in the imported Japanese school systems
were fluent in the Japanese language Japan were familiar with
the Japanese culture. In the early 1920's it seems as though
the assimilation policy had been most successful among this
generation of young Taiwanese foreign under Japanese rule the
urban presidents of Taiwan had the most exposure to Japanese
culture; Taiwanese doctors and teachers living in the city's
seemed to lead lives more similar to the Japanese than with
the Taiwanese peasants residing in the tradition-bound countryside.
However the actions of the most dissimulated colonial subjects
failed to live up to the patriotic notions of loyalty and devotion
to the state envisioned by Japanese proponents of assimilation
policy.
Young Taiwanese students studying
a broad in Japan in main land China began to organize anti-colonial
political groups, raising the issues of racial equality, home
rule, and popular election. All of the efforts of the Japanese
officials invested in instilling devotion to the Japanese emperor
suddenly seemed futile. How did these young people come to realize
their separate identities from the Japanese? How did their experiences
abroad influence the evolution of the numerous political organizations
that emerge? Some of the actions of the young Taiwanese can
be attributed to the
influence
of the socio-political atmosphere they were exposed to upon
their arrival in Japan.
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