Japanese Colonial Era Taiwan

The Qing dynasty era ended when Taiwan was ceded to Japan with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki at the conclusion of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. The Japanese invaded Taiwan that same year, wiping out all resistance and ushering in half a century of colonial rule.

For the purposes of this project I have chosen the phrase Japanese Colonial Era (日治時代) to describe this time period (though it is often called an “occupation” in Chinese nationalist discourse). The Japanese heavily developed and modernized Taiwan, a program put on display for Crown Prince Hirohito during his 1923 tour of the island, but not without cost to the local populace, particularly as the war effort ramped up in the late 1930s. Following their defeat in World War 2 the Japanese were expelled from Taiwan and a new set of rulers moved in. Thus began the martial law era.