no / This thesis paper tracks the development of the draft in Taiwan leading up to the Second World War and through its conclusion. In the mobilization of Taiwan as part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, many factors played a role in first encouraging and then pressing the Taiwanese population into service, including the propagation of mass paranoia labeled spy fever, Japanifized education policies, assimilation projects, general media stresses, social organization allowing for a police state, economics and the weight of Taiwan’s own unique frontier history. All of the routes created a certain frenzied (for lack of a better word) atmosphere and deserve attention in understanding the processes that led young Taiwanese males, and females, to first volunteer in the Imperial Japanese Army, Navy and Air Force and then comply to institutionalized conscription. The story of these individuals remains overlooked in the current reconstruction of Taiwan’s history. The era has been overshadowed by the turbulent events following the Second World War and the landing of half a million Chinese immigrants in Taiwan upon defeat in China. This corner of Taiwan’s history is still inappropriately relegated to the sidelines.
With the Second World War generation and in particular the 200,000 who served both in Taiwan and overseas as volunteers and conscripts beginning to die off, the need to get their first-hand accounts recorded and preserved for posterity is pressing. In maintaining their information and stories, the interested historian can do service by adding to the historical record. Knowing this, “From Volunteerism to Conscription: The Mobilization of Taiwan for the Second World War” does not seek to score political points in plotting such a course. The thesis paper simply attempts to better comprehend the mechanisms that worked to pit Taiwan against her ancestral China and to comment on the plight of the survivors, bringing up their influence on Taiwan today. So, this paper will delve into 13 years of history, from 1932 to 1945, when Taiwan sat at the side of Japan as a colonial possession, and did its part in an unprecedented modern territorial expansion. The thesis paper wants to explain more about those who served, and why their service and its outcome might remain relevant in shaping Taiwan’s story at this very moment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CHENGCHI/G0949240211 |
| Creators | 鄭柏力, Cowsill, Patrick |
| Publisher | 國立政治大學 |
| Source Sets | National Chengchi University Libraries |
| Language | 英文 |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Rights | Copyright © nccu library on behalf of the copyright holders |
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