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Japanese Policy and Views Toward Formosa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Douglas H. Mendel
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Japan controlled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, longer than the United States ruled the Philippines, and sent more of its people to live in that colony. The pervasive impact of Japanese colonial rule helped insure a continuing Japanese influence in postwar Taiwan. “The dogs treated us better than the pigs,” was a common Formosan phrase heard by the writer in 1961–64 to denote the invidious comparison between Japanese and Nationalist Chinese rule. This article will discuss the trend of official relations between Japan and Nationalist China since their bilateral peace treaty in 1952; Japanese leadership views obtained through interviews with government, opposition, and bureaucratic specialists; and attitudes of public and various interest groups in Japan toward Formosa.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , May 1969 , pp. 513 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1969

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References

1 Interview with an officer in charge of Taiwan affairs, December 1957.

2 See especially the following works: Leng, Shao Chuan, Japan and Communist China (Kyoto: Doshisha University Press, 1958)Google Scholar; Matsumoto, Shigeharu, “Japan and China” in Halpern, A. M., ed., Policies toward China: Views from Six Continents (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965)Google Scholar; Barnett, A. Doak, Communist China and Asia (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960) ch. 10Google Scholar: and Hinton, Harold, Communist China in World Politics (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966), ch. 14Google Scholar.

3 China News, December 3, 1967.

4 China News, October 25, 1967.

5 Japan Times, September 9, 1967. Demonstrators protested Sato's departure from the Tokyo airport, but Formosans were greatly outnumbered by pro-Communists in that and similar airport protests on the November arrival of Chiang Ching-kuo.

6 Leng, op. cit., p. 12, quoting Yoshida's article in Foreign Affairs, January 1951, p. 179.

7 Ibid., p. 11. See also a Jiji Press dispatch, January 16, 1956.

8 Mainichi, Tokyo, December 7, 1956.

9 Interview with Ohira at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Tokyo, November 19, 1962.

10 See the Seikat Orai, Tokyo, November 1963, and Summary of Selected Japanese Magazines (Tokyo: U. S. Embassy), January 13, 1964Google Scholar. Takasaki underestimated the potential China trade which reached a two-way total of over $600 million in 1966 and, despite the Red Guard confusion, remained over $500 million in 1967.

11 See the Japan Times, September 30, 1963, and the Asahi Evening News, October 12, 1963.

12 Asahi Evening News, October 10, 1963.

13 Japan Times, November 2, 1963 and January 11–14, 1964, give the detailed story of Chinese Communist defectee, Chou Hung-ching.

14 Letter from the writer's former UCLA student, dated October 12, 1964. Taiwanese interviewed by the writer during his brief visit in September 1964 confirmed the lack of popular hostility toward Japan. The front door of the Japanese Embassy was patched, but its officials said the vandals had been government-inspired.

15 Japan Times, August 3 and October 29, 1965, and March 8, 1968.

16 See Gurtov, Melvin, “Taiwan in 1966: Political Rigidity, Economic Growth,” Asian Survey, January 1967, p. 42Google Scholar.

17 See the China Post, May I, 1965 and the China News, June 28, 1963 and May 30, 1967. The Nationalist press always insists that the Japanese public favors the visit of American nuclear-powered ships, the presence of American bases in Japan and Okinawa, and other equally unpopular issues.

18 A Formosan student was forcibly deported to Taipei aboard a Nationalist plane March 27, 1968, and a similar February deportation was revealed later (Yomiuri, June 20, 1968).

19 China News, December 3, 1967. No Formosan contacted by this writer ever expressed proCommunist views.

20 Interview with Kawamura Kaoru, August II, 1957. The exgeneral repeated his opinion in August 1966.

21 Interview in the Japanese Embassy, Taipei, December 21, 1957.

22 Interview, Taipei, July 9, 1962.

23 Interview, Tokyo, September 8, 1964.

24 Interviews July 9, 1961, February 1962, and February 1963, all in Tokyo.

25 Interview, Tokyo, August 1, 1966.

26 Interview, Tokyo, August 1, 1966 at the Foreign Ministry.

27 Interview, Hong Kong, November 2, 1962.

28 Interview, Hong Kong, November 2, 1962.

29 Interview, Canberra, September 18, 1962.

30 Interview in Tokyo, February 14, 1963.

31 Conversation in Tokyo, July 26, 1962.

32 Kazuo Kuroda in the Japan Times, July 15, 1967. Kuroda expressed the same view earlier to the writer.

33 Kaya, Okinori, The Communist China Policy of the Government and the Liberal-Democratic Party (Tokyo: Japan National Foreign Affairs Association, n.d.), pp. 14–20Google Scholar.

34 Interview with Kaya, Tokyo, Maich 4, 1963.

35 Interview, Tokyo, March 12, 1963.

36 Interview, Tokyo, March 5, 1963.

37 Interview, Tokyo, August 28, 1964.

38 Interview with Kawashima, Tokyo, July 27, 1962.

39 Interview with Deputy Prime Minister Kawashima, the Diet building, Tokyo, July 2a, 1966.

40 Interview with Miki, Tokyo, August 24, 1961.

41 Interview with Ohira, Tokyo, November 19, 1962.

42 Interview with Ohira, Tokyo, August 21, 1964.

43 Interview with Fujiyama, Tokyo, July 26, 1962.

44 Interview at Ishii's home in Tokyo, July 25, 1962.

45 Interview with Osaka assemblyman Kaginaka, Osaka, November 26, 1962.

46 Interview with Matsumura, Tokyo, July 27, 1961. See also Matsumura's views in the Tokyo Keizai (SSJM, June 27, 1966) and the Tokyo Shimbun (DSJP, December 2, 1964), the latter following the exchange of newsmen.

47 Interview with Nishio, Tokyo, September 5, 1961.

48 See the Asahi, Tokyo, February 22, 1964.

49 Quoted in Doko, as translated in the SSJM, October 17, 1966. Sone Eki had told the writer on February 18, 1963 that “Our party doesn't take a clear stand on Taiwan's future, but it should be some kind of UN settlement, then a plebiscite ten years later… There is much support for a separate Taiwan because the natives there don't like Chiang's government and our policy succeeded in Taiwan better than in Korea… Taiwan today is a dictatorship, more like Spain or Portugal than Russia or Communist China.”

50 Interview with Matsumoto Tokyo, August 2, 1961. See the Asahi Evening News, Tokyo, March 19–21, 1959, for the Asanuma statement.

51 Speech given by Hozumi at the Kudan Kaikan, Tokyo, February 28, 1962.

52 Interview with Wada at the JSP party headquarters, Tokyo, August 16, 1961.

53 Interview with Katsumata, Tokyo, July 1966.

54 China News, Taipei, February 11, 1966.

55 Interview at the Osaka City Hall, November 29, 1962.

56 Interview with Shiga at his Diet office, Tokyo, August 24, 1964.

57 Data from survey sponsored by the Newspaper Public Opinion Research Association (Shimbun Yoron Chosa Renmei) conducted by the Central Research Services, Tokyo, December 1965, with 1,367 respondents. Copies of the data on file at the Roper Public Opinion Research Center, Williamstown, Massachusetts, which made the tabulations for the writer.

58 Japan Times, July 11, 1967 and Mendel, The Japanese People …, pp. 234–37.

59 Trends in Japanese Attitudes…, pp. 1–3. This is the only known survey to have used questions on defense of the offshore islands and Formosa in Japan.

60 The writer asked his 1957 national and regional samples if they favored the use of force to protect Japanese fishermen then being seized by South Korean gunboats (often converted from captured Japanese fishing vessels). Only 10 per cent approved, preferring peaceful diplomacy despite the absence of official relations at that time. See Mendel, The Japanese People …, pp. 184–86.

61 Interview with Toshikyo, Kondo, author of the excellent book, Taiwan no Meiun [The Fate of Formosa], (Tokyo: Misuzu Books, 1961), in Tokyo, 1963Google Scholar. Kondo introduced the writer to the leaders of the Formosan Association, later called the United Young Formosans for Independence.

62 Interview, Tokyo, August 12, 1966. The Asahi Research Room study is titled, Taiwan, Its international status, politics, and economics (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Chosa Kenkyushitsu, 2 vols., 1965Google Scholar, confidential). Two researchers collaborated on each of the two volumes. Other, more available Japanese studies of postwar Formosa, include Taiwan no Hyojo [The Face of Formosa] by Akio, Hosono and five other members of the Southeast Asia Study Group (Tokyo: Kokon Shoin, 1963)Google Scholar; Tatsuzo, Omura, Futatsu no Chukoku [The Two Chinas]. (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1961)Google Scholar; and Nobutane, Kiuchi, Gendai no Taiwan [Contemporary Formosa], (Tokyo: Sekai Keizai Chosakai, 1961)Google Scholar. The last-named was widely distributed in Taiwan by Ambassador Iguchi.

63 Interview, Tokyo, February 28, 1963.

64 Hosono et al. Taiwan no Hyojo pp. 35–37.

65 Interview at American Embassy, Tokyo, February 12, 1962. A group of Kyoto University scholars told the writer that “Taiwanese are indeed different from Chinese and it is easy for us to spot the differences … Taiwan has the base for a viable economy, unlike South Korea … and we should all study it more” (interviews, December 9, 1962).

66 Dinner at home of Leon Picon, Tokyo, March 15, 1963.

67 Comment of Ukai Nobushige, March 19, 1963.

68 From “Principles of Red Chinese Foreign Policy Conduct,” Jiyu [Freedom], February 1965, pp. 44–45, written with Okabe Tatsumi. See also their article in Sefai, March 1965.

69 Interview, Fukuoka, April 4, 1963. Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce leaders met in Hong Kong who toured Taiwan in 1962 reported KMT suppression of Taiwanese in most walks of life (November 5, 1962).

70 Ohira Zengo, “Two Chinas Is No Myth,” Jiyu, May 1961, pp. 2–9, as translated in the Journal of Social and Political Ideas in Japan, April 1966, pp. 69–72.

71 Among the petitioners were Kamikawa Hikomatsu, Oya Soichi, and odier scholars and Dietmen (see details in Independent Formosa, Tokyo, October 1967, pp. 22–23).

72 Free China Weekly, November 12, 1967, gives statistics on foreign entrants into Formosa.

73 Interview, Tokyo, August 28, 1964.

74 Interview, Tokyo, August 26, 1964.