As outrageous as it sounds, Aso may be right
The New York Times has attacked Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, calling him “Japan’s Offensive Foreign Minister.”
The Times said “many Asians have been angered by a string of appalling remarks Mr. Aso has made since being named foreign minister.”
One of problem remarks by Aso cited by the paper is “his claim that Taiwan’s high education standards were due to enlightened Japanese policies during its occupation.”
I am not really much of a fan of Aso, but he may not be off the mark in regards to his statements about Taiwan. In fact, many native Taiwanese feel that the real invasion of their island came with the arrival of Nationalist mainlanders who behaved like a conquering army, confiscating property and raping local women. Many Taiwanese at the time regarded their new rulers as corrupt, overbearing, and uncultured.
In 1947, Nationalists beat a old woman for selling cigarettes, which sparked riots among the locals. Reinforcements from the mainland killed and imprisoned thousands of Taiwanese locals as communists and saboteurs.
Today, young Taiwanese feel that Japanese fashion, music, and other popular culture are cool.
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that in ancient china if you were REALLY fat that meant you were...
omg i feel so bad for a that monkey help it some one plzzzz
The Mainichi Daily News regurgitated a Taipei Times article. The Taipei Times/Liberty Times is a partisan pro-DPP separatist newspaper. It’s like asking only Fox news viewers their opinions on former presidents Clinton and Carter and taking it as gospel. As I wrote at coming anarchy the reason the DPP and like-minded separatists are so keen to promote the Japanese colonial period has nothing to do with re-evaluating history but rather it is a political exercise in nation building to foster a separate and distinct nationalism apart from China. This is critical for them to establish Taiwan permanently as a viable political entity and to completly reverse the Chinese socio/political narrative of the KMT.
If you are really interested in the study of collective memory on Taiwan and post-colonial discourse, then you will have to consult articles published in academic journals. It is a topic too complex to be covered by regular news, particularly newspapers that are using it to push a political agenda.
February 15th, 2006 at 7:29 am“I am not really much of a fan of Aso, but he may not be off the mark in regards to his statements about Taiwan”. Oh really? Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but ultimately, where’s the evidence? Was there large scale introduction of improved schooling methods/systems, more schools, more universities? Did Taiwanese have greater opportunities to study, because the rulers were Japanese?
February 15th, 2006 at 7:35 amRight now I don’t know any of the facts – articles and comments like this are ultimately inconclusive without supporting evidence (and I don’t mean what some 16 year old thinks about Japanese trends).
Oh also, Aso’s remarks about colonial Taiwan’s education system are quite wrong. It’s annoying that refuting a sentence of bullshit requires pages of scholarship, but if anyone is actually interested, feel free to leave a comment at my blog(I don’t give out email due to spammers) and I’ll send you a few pdf scans of journal articles.
February 15th, 2006 at 7:39 am“It is a topic too complex to be covered by regular news, particularly newspapers that are using it to push a political agenda.”
As with the New York Times.
February 15th, 2006 at 9:35 am1) Your statement – “I am not really much of a fan of Aso, but he may not be off the mark in regards to his statements about Taiwan. In fact, many? native Taiwanese feel that the real invasion of their island came with the arrival of Nationalist mainlanders who behaved like a conquering army, confiscating property and raping local women. Many Taiwanese at the time regarded their new rulers as corrupt, overbearing, and uncultured” is not only sweeping but factually wrong (Note: I am not a Mainland Chinese/Taiwanese). It reveals a total lack of knowledge about Taiwanese history and Japanese colonial past.
February 15th, 2006 at 9:58 amIf you bother to read up on Taiwanese history, the Taiwanese Aborigines suffered greatly under Japanese rule and were massacred –> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wushe_Incident
2) “Today, young Taiwanese feel that Japanese fashion, music, and other popular culture are cool.”
Most Taiwanese take to Japanese fashion, music and other popular culture because of language barriers to the Western Culture and the close distance between Japan and Taiwan. A good example can be found in Singapore where the majority of the people are English-educated and Japanese fashion, music and other popular culture are not as cool to them compared to those from UK/USA. With increasing globalization, I can assure you that Japanese fashion, music and other popular culture will soon take a back seat.
3) With such sweeping and offensive remarks posted on this blog, I am not surprised by the negative attitude from the Chinese and I can fully understand the sentiments of the Chinese as expressed in The Times where “many Asians have been angered by a string of appalling remarks Mr. Aso has made since being named foreign minister.”
I am not sure if JP is Japanese or a Westerner living in Japan. But if you are trying to ’suck up’ to Japan in this blog. Please do not do it at the expense of the Chinese and by distorting history.
February 15th, 2006 at 10:05 amUse Western examples… but would you dare to?
The implementation of policies aimed at high economic growth and the integration of Taiwan’s economy into the Japanese empire were another high priority of the Japanese rulers. When the Japanese arrived in Taiwan, they immediately faced the effects of decades of neglect by the Qing Dynasty and an economy almost totally based on sugar and rice. The first programme implemented by the Japanese, therefore, concentrated on creating an economic infrastructure by building roads, railways, communication systems and harbours to facilitate exports to Japan. So that Taiwan’s agricultural potential could be fully harnessed, they also improved irrigation canals, implemented land reform policies by buying out the landlords and introduced new strains of rice. While the development of agriculture took top priority, the Japanese also allowed the establishment of light industry such as food processing plants, and introduced economic reforms such as a standardised currency and uniform commercial practices. As it turned out, all of these economic reforms met with great success and even laid some of the foundations for Taiwan’s later phenomenal economic growth.
More here.
February 15th, 2006 at 10:06 amCulture and education policies were the next issues with which the Japanese dealt. In an effort to destroy Chinese cultural inheritance in Taiwan, the Japanese introduced Japanese-style schools in an attempt to indoctrinate Taiwanese children with Japanese language, culture and traditions where neither Mandarin Chinese nor the local dialect were taught in schools. Later on, even scholarships to study in Japan were introduced. Generally speaking, however, Taiwan’s education system was greatly improved by the Japanese, with marked increases in the island’s literacy rate and technological skills.
February 15th, 2006 at 10:07 amWell shit, a geocities website, I’m certainly convinced now by this authoritative response.
February 15th, 2006 at 11:02 amThe above article touches on nothing more than the education system of Taiwan and the brutality of the Nationalists. It says nothing about excusing the Japanese for their excesses.
Some of the reactions here seem to be focused more on shutting down discussion than anything else.
February 15th, 2006 at 12:28 pmJing,
February 15th, 2006 at 1:24 pmFor a blogger who says on his blog that “Those who dare
oppose us will stand knee deep in the blood of their children,” one has no idea what you mean or what you stand for. But there is just one China, a communist dictatorship, and one Taiwan, a free country. And those DPP and Taiwan freedom people are NOT separtists or splittists, they are democrats who live in their own soverign nation. Get over it, pal. China is a mindcontrolled brainwashed communist dictatorship, and the Taiwan people, bless them, are lovers of freeedom and democracy. They are not separatists. Stop using that mindcontrolled word and open up your mind. You sound like an apologist for the Chinese communists. Are you?
In fact, the Japanese did introduce important educational reforms in Taiwan during the 1895-1945 period of Japanese colonial rule, and they also built schools, universities, hospitals, RR tracks and museums. And they helped educate Lee Teng-hui who more than any other Taiwanese leader, is the real “father” of Taiwan’s freedom and democracy. Even though he was once a KMT leader.
So yes, JP, good post. It’s true, most Taiwanese people feel that Japan’s colonial rule on that island was constructive and positive, and they consider Japan to be a good friend and neighbor, not to mention that they also like the Japanese porn on TV late at night in Taiwan these days.
It’s only Red China that hates Japan. Taiwan, which is not communist or mindcontrolled robot nation like China, has a postiively positive relationship with Japan. Aso was right about the education stuff. He was wrong about the emperor going to visit Yasukini. So the New York Times got it right partly, and wrong on the edu stuff. Dumb New Yorkers, they don’t even know what’s what anymore!
February 15th, 2006 at 1:30 pmHey Jing, how can Taiwan have any separatists when it has already been a separate nation for decades?
“With increasing globalization, I can assure you that Japanese fashion, music and other popular culture will soon take a back seat.”
Jozee, I can assure you that an elephant will poop on you right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
It amazes me that people get so upset because Japan is the only country in Asia that’s not a toilet.
February 15th, 2006 at 3:03 pmPaul: Anyone familar with cross-strait politics would know what separatist means in that context. Taiwan (Republic of China) has been a seperate nation but the offical considers itselfs as a Chinese nation. What separatist thinks differently is that this seperate Chinese Nation constitutes a Taiwan-ese Nation state, which implies Taiwan-ese is a distinctive nationalities. To draw a not-quite correct analogy, you might imagine North Korea not considering itself as Korean but something else.
The original entry remarks that many Taiwanese thinks Japanese culture is cool, which I think is true; but it has nothing to do with the educational standard in Taiwan noe with the Japanese contribution to it. That remark, I think, is rather misleading.
Whether Japanese policies during its occupation contribute to the high standard of education in Taiwan is an interesting historical question. Yet I would like to make two points here: that Taiwan had seen huge population growth after 1949, and even if Japan had done a great job we need to be cautious about its broader impact. Secondly, many bright Taiwanese scientists were educated in the U.S. thanks to the good relationship between Nationalist government and the U.S.
February 15th, 2006 at 5:05 pmYou’ve got to be kidding. Aso has his head so far up his ass it’s peering out his bellybutton.
The skinny is here on my blog. The Japanese education program in Taiwan was designed to produce a minimally educated populace that could be easily controlled.
Taiwan’s future growth was in part due to Japan, but let’s not forget that in the brief interregnum between Japan’s takeover in 1895 and the implementation of a mercantilist foreign policy designed to block the trade of other nations, the US was Taiwan’s largest trading partner. There’s no question that had Taiwan been left to develop, it would have developed pretty well anyway. All it needed was that trade and a government minimally committed to supporting the development of a foreign trade sector, which is what we had here after 1860.
Michael
February 15th, 2006 at 8:09 pmI’m several days ahead of you, JP!
February 15th, 2006 at 8:56 pmGood post, Curzon.
February 15th, 2006 at 9:09 pmthat statement about japanese rule helped taiwan’s education is similar something once said about the slavery in USA. That modern-day African-Americans are the beneficiaries of the slave-trade.
how you view that two statements depends on which side you are on, and i can not help you with that.
February 16th, 2006 at 1:48 amYeah, I beat you to it as well.
I’m loving the comments here, seems like I’m usually the only one pointing out the problems with some of the posts.
Jing, you should post about this issue.
February 16th, 2006 at 2:06 amYes maybe the Japanese did contribute something during their occupation, but claiming credit now is like the British claiming credit for encouraging the writing of the US constitution. Aso-l deserves no credit at all for his remarks.
February 16th, 2006 at 8:46 amI see a lot bullsh1t here atributing Japanese invasion as the factor in elevating Taiwan’s education. Ask any black college graduate in the States whether he should thank the slavery system for his college education.
February 17th, 2006 at 2:07 pm