Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, NCCU

Title

The Freedom and People’s Rights Movement in Japan and the Inaugurating National Diet Movement in Colonial Taiwan: Along the Biography of Saigo Nanshu in Jiang Wei-Sui’s Diary in Jail

Author

Wu, Pei-Chen

Assistant Professor, Department of Japanese Language and Culture, Shoochow University／Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University

Abstract

The turning point of Taiwan’s independence movement in colonial period from armed resistance to non-armed resistance is the Ta-pa-ni Incident, the last great armed revolution resisting Japanese colonial ruling from 1915 to 1916. Afterward the Inaugurating National Diet Movement in colonial Taiwan began as non-armed resistance movement against the Japanese ruling power.

One of the most important leaders in the Inaugurating National Diet Movement is Jiang Wei-Sui who was arrested in June 6th 1923 when Taiwan’s government-general decided to exercise the strict control over the movement. He described his impressions in his diary at the day he was arrested: “This is must be the beginning of a crackdown, Taiwan’s Lion (Shi-shi) hunting just begins.” Jiang’s description reflects how he was influenced by the radical activists’ thoughts from both the Meiji Restoration and the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. Jiang Wei-Sui’s Diary in Jail includes his few reading records, such as Japanese literature the Biography of Saigo Nanshu, ect. Most these Japanese literary works are based on the stories of the activities in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement in the early Meiji or related with this movement.

Through examining the Japanese literary works indicating at Jiang’s Diary in Jail, we will have a clear picture about the relations between the Inaugurating National Diet Movement in colonial Taiwan and the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. From the comparative perspectives of modern Japanese and Taiwanese colonial literature, I hope this paper will shed light on the relationship between the Inaugurating National Diet Movement in colonial Taiwan and how the Freedom and the People’s Rights movement in Meiji period influences Jiang.