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Taiwan

Main article: Taiwan under Japanese rule

After the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895, Taiwan was ceded to the Empire of Japan as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. At the start, Taiwan was governed rather like a colony. In 1936, after the arrival of the 17th governor-general, Seizō Kobayashi, there was a change in the Japanese governance in Taiwan. Kobayashi was the first non-civilian governor-general since 1919. He proposed three principles of the new governance: the Kōminka movement (皇民化運動), industrialization, and making Taiwan a base for southward expansion.

Military officials trainees Taiwan Pacific War

Taiwan Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine constructed in Taipei in 1901

Takasago Volunteers

The Kominka movement (1937 to 1945) can be viewed as a continuation of the ongoing process of assimilation and a crucial part of the Japanese Empire's wartime mobilization, which was not intended to grant constitutional rights to the colonized. “Kominka” literally means "to transform the colonial peoples into imperial subjects". In general, the movement had four major programs. First, the "national language movement" (國語運動, kokugo undō) promoted the Japanese language by teaching Japanese instead of Taiwanese Hokkien in the schools and by banning the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the press. The number of "national language speakers" in Taiwan reached 51 percent of the population in 1940. Secondly, the "name changing campaign" (改姓名, kaiseimei) replaced Taiwanese's Chinese names with Japanese names.The name-changing program in Taiwan was initiated by the colonial government, which aimed to assimilate Taiwanese into Japanese culture and claimed Taiwanese demonstrated imperial loyalty during Japan's war in China, leading many to wish to bear names similar to ethnic Japanese. Thirdly, the "recruitment of military volunteers" (志願兵制度, shiganhei seidō) drafted Taiwanese subjects into the Imperial Japanese Army and encouraged them to die in the service of the emperor. The Imperial Japanese Army recruited Takasago Volunteers from Taiwanese indigenous peoples during the Second World War. Takasagozoku, a positive Japanese name for Formosa, rather than savages by the emperor’s direct order. They were encouraged to use Japanese names, pray at shrines, and perform military service. Due to a large number of volunteers, they had to draw lots to determine who would have the honor of joining the Japanese military. Takasagozoku were known for their jungle survival ability and were organized into the Kaoru Special Attack Corps for a suicide mission. Fourthly, the religious reform promoted the Japanese State Shinto and attempted to eradicate traditional indigenous religion, a hybrid of Buddhism, Daoism, and folk beliefs. The number of Japanese shrines in Taiwan increased significantly between 1937 and 1943.