HIEA 115 Medium #1
As a Taiwanese, it is quite a special experience to learn something about Taiwan in a Japanese history class. I was told and taught that we were once ruled by Japan for 50 years. I was born and raised in a Japan friendly environment. I know different people have different thoughts on colonization, but I always believe that the Japanese colonization in Taiwan had good influences to a certain extent. As a woman, I would like to think the good influences include the women rights.
I remembered that we discussed about the Japanese colonial government did not like many traditional customs in Taiwan such as the “trafficking of wives and daughters” in Week 3 class. In fact, Taiwan had very good development regarding human rights and women rights under Japan’s ruling. We got rid of those unreasonable customs while trafficking girls for being wives is still happening in modern China. It is said that the Chinese soldiers were so surprised that how well-developed was Taiwan when they first came to Taiwan after the Republic of China government took over Taiwan from Japan because of Japan’s lose in World War II. The Japanese colonial government has changed the lifestyle and the way to view women of the Taiwanese people. Of course changes to the colonial legal system would impact the way that women were viewed by local elites.
I think the view on women might change depend on region, class, etc. People all have different mindsets and different values. Someone who lived through the ruling of Japan or be influenced by Japanese culture might have the same views. Like me, my family are all pure Taiwanese who got deeply influenced by the Japanese. so I would not have the same thoughts on how women are treated with a person whose background is different from me, for example, raised in a mainland Chinese family. People from Taipei, the capital, and people from Nantou, the countryside, would probably also have different views. The indigenous people from different tribes as the minority and the Han people as the majority would definitely think differently, too. I think it is all based on your growing backgrounds and how you think about the Japanese colonization.
I agree with the argument that “changes that favored women vis a vis patriarchal households were only advanced because they were profitable to the interests of Japanese capital”. The reason I think this way is Japan is a country with poor gender equality even now, not to mention at the time of the terrifying Imperial Japan. They cannot even give their own female citizens proper rights, how could it be possible for them to treat the colony better. According to the Global Gender Index made by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranked 125 out of 146 countries last year (2023). They were the last one in East Asia. Even China and South Korea had better results than Japan in this Index (there was no data about Taiwan). Therefore, I would not believe that the Japanese colonial government made changes favored women was because they finally understood the idea of gender equality. Then what else can drive Japan to make the decision? It should be the profits. People care about benefits than anything else. When there is nothing to explain an certain action, then it is probably driven by some sort of good things that the ones who do the action may get.
