Formation and Variation of ‘Taiwan Consciousness’ during the Japanese Colonial Period as Seen through Diaries
Authors:   Institute for Historical Studies at Chung-Ang University, Son Junsik , Lee Sungchan 
Published: February 2025

This paper traces the variation of ‘Taiwan consciousness’ by examining the diaries of Taiwanese during the Japanese colonial period, dividing them into the old generation, the Yi-wei (1895) new generation, and the war generation.
The formation of ‘Taiwan consciousness’ was influenced by social changes, including the strengthening of unity among various ethnic groups in Taiwan due to the Taiwan Government-General’s modernization and assimilation policies after the 1920s. However, the main catalyst was the accumulated discontent of Taiwanese against colonial exploitation and national discrimination. Particularly, even though under the ‘Extension of Homeland Policy’, the fundamentally unchanged difference and treatment, and sense of superiority the Japanese further consolidated the Taiwanese community consciousness. This led to the emergence of ‘Taiwan consciousness’ that viewed Taiwan as a special region, including demands for autonomy, while maintaining a strong ‘Chinese consciousness’ distinct from ‘Japanese consciousness’. Although there were some intellectuals, such as the ‘Taiwan Revolutionary Faction’ and the ‘Taiwanese Literature Faction’, who advocated for independence of Taiwan or Taiwan-centric literature, their activities were short-lived, and their influence was very limited.
However, after the Manchurian Incident, as Japanese control and assimilation policies intensified, such resistance went underground. Instead, under Japanese colonial period, the generation that received education and grew up during this eventually became the backbone of society, and with the emergence of the war generation, the variation of ‘Taiwan consciousness’ began to occur. Unlike the old generation who criticized the Imperialization Movement aimed at transforming Taiwanese into ‘true Japanese’ and tried to preserve Chinese traditional culture, in the Yi-wei new generation, they only had a conceptual image of China, struggled with identity confusion while trying to keep up with their given reality mostly. Regarding war mobilization, while the old generation cooperated reluctantly, the Yi-wei new generation showed active participation, though with individual variations. In terms of war perception, even the old generation hoped for Japan's victory for the sake of Taiwan as a member of the Japanese Empire after the outbreak of the Pacific War, while the Yi-wei new generation viewed it as a liberation war against Western imperialism. Moreover, in the novels written by this generation also expressed desire to escape the status of ‘second-class citizens’ quickly and become true Japanese.
Meanwhile, in the war generation, most people not only considered themselves Japanese but also felt no discrimination as Taiwanese and were confused by the transition to Chinese identity after the war. In contrast, there were cases within the same generation where those studying in Japan developed identity crises, criticized Japan's invasion war and struggled with the conflict of whether they were Taiwanese or Japanese. However, it is evident that the love-hate relationship and conflict between Japan and Taiwan by these generations were more complex than previous generations. In summary, the ‘Taiwan consciousness’ that began forming in the middle of the Japanese colonial period showed differences and variations over time and across generation within the context of prolonged colonial rule and war, but this consciousness that took Taiwan as a communal space would face another transformation under the Kuomintang government’s ‘re-Sinicization’ policy after the war.