Japanese Supremacy
The Japanese colonial government impacted education in Taiwan through retaining Japanese supremacy with education policies. As the colonizers, the Japanese wanted to ensure that Japanese children had advantages over Taiwanese children. In order to accomplish this goal, the Japanese colonial administration saw fit to adopt education policies which prevented the Taiwanese from posing as a threat to the Japanese administration.
The Japanese administration limited the education of Taiwanese students through education policies. As the number of Taiwanese students attending common schools increased and the standard of education in Taiwan was raised, the Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan ensured that the Japanese that the standards of schools for Taiwanese boys would be lower than that of schools for Japanese boys.[1] Japanese students were secured an advantage over Taiwanese students, which provided Japanese men with an edge over Taiwanese men in the job market. Since the Taiwanese would grow up to be unqualified for positions of power, the trend of Japanese supremacy would continue. In addition to lowering the standards of common schools for Taiwanese students, the Japanese administration also denied the Taiwanese access to Japanese schools as often as possible. In a Japanese equivalent of the American “separate but equal system” later during the Jim Crow era, the Taiwanese were denied access to Japanese facilities, and only permitted to use inferior facilities. This approach applied to education, limiting the opportunities available to Taiwanese students. Eventually, in an effort to appear to enforce educational equality aimed to pacify the Taiwanese, small groups of Taiwanese students with fluency in the Japanese language were accepted to common schools previously reserved for Japanese students by the Japanese administration.[2] Unsurprisingly, these acceptances were extremely rare and selected students faced tremendous discrimination at school. The Japanese colonial government in Taiwan adopted education policies which perpetuated Japanese dominance over the Taiwanese. The Japanese administration provided local education opportunities for the Taiwanese, monitoring the education which Taiwanese students received. The Japanese government continued tp fund schools for Taiwanese students in order to prevent Taiwanese parents from seeking alternative educational opportunities abroad, an option which was gaining popularity among the Taiwanese elite. Wealthy Taiwanese boys started to see schooling in major Japanese cities such as Tokyo and Osaka as an option, which Japanese authorities worried would lead to awareness of the discriminatory treatment the Taiwanese received as colonial subjects.[3] Japanese schools had liberal atmospheres and exposed students to Western ideology as well as global current events. This, the Japanese colonial government concluded, would lead to Taiwanese political awareness, significantly threatening Japanese dominance.[4] |
Sources:
1. Tsurumi, Japanese Colonial, [622].
2. Ibid [624]
3. Chen, "IMPACT OF JAPANESE," [35].
4. Ibid
1. Tsurumi, Japanese Colonial, [622].
2. Ibid [624]
3. Chen, "IMPACT OF JAPANESE," [35].
4. Ibid