著者

栗原 純

出版者

東京女子大学

雑誌

東京女子大学比較文化研究所紀要 (ISSN:05638186)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.54, pp.37-62, 1993

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This article deals with the Japan's ruling policy toward her first colony, Taiwan. From the first, the Meiji government took an ambiguous attitude toward the colony with the alternative of giving the same legal status to it as to Japan proper, or governing it as a pure colony. And two factors influenced this policy ; the political situation in Taiwan and the relationship between the government and the Diet. First of all, in order to suppress the armed resistance of Taiwan people against Japanese rule, the government committed large-scale troops to the colony and at the same time appointed among military or naval officers a Taiwan governor, who was charged with strong authorities for administration, justice, legislation, and army. The government tried to deprive the Diet, which was then led by political parties, of the voice in the administration of Taiwan. But to meet the need of a tremendous sum of money for ruling the colony, including the military cost, it was necessary to refer a budget for Taiwan to the Diet. While the power over administration, justice, and army was granted through the Imperial decree, as to that of legislation the government wanted to gain the parliamentary approval to it. Thus the government submitted "the bill on laws and ordinances to be enforced toward Taiwan" to the ninth session of the Imperial Diet held in 1896. However, because it was to provide the Taiwan governor with the legislative, that bill was faced with a strong objection in the Diet under the name of a violation of the constitution. In March 1896, it was barely passed as the 63rd law, whose term of validity was just 3 years. This did not solve the essential problem of whether Taiwan would be under the constitution or not. In Taiwan, under the 63rd law, the anti-Japan resistance became so hard that the government was forced to spend much money in repressing it. Because of financial pressure, the government aimed to increase a land tax, which brought about its opposition with political parties and the repeated change of cabinet. Besides the date of enforcement of new treaties was just around the corner. The government had succeeded in the amendment of unequal treaties around the Japan-China War. But in this case too, it remained unsettled whether these new treaties would be applied to Taiwan or not. After all, the government concluded that both new treaties and the constitution would be effective in Taiwan, and expressed it officially. But before the end of the validity of the 63rd law, the government had the Diet recognize its prolongation. Thus based on the 63rd law with a unconstitutional taint, an authoritarian and dictatorial military rule was established in Taiwan.