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Editor's Note: On November 20, 2014, the NAHF hosted an international conference on "Justice or reality: The post-war treatment of the WWII Japan's labor draft history in East and Southeast Asia." One of the participants in this conference, Professor Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai from Taiwan studying labor draft, gave an interview with Research Fellow Lee, Chang Wook at the NAHF to talk about Imperial Japan's exploitation during the early 20th century, which would cause historical conflict in East Asia, and how it was dealt with after the war.

Q. Lee Chang Wook How did the research of the history of Imperial Japan's labor draft come about in Taiwan? And what is the current trend of the research?

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai The research of labor draft in Taiwan was conducted primarily in the 1990s. Before then, the topic of labor draft itself had been hardly known among researchers, not to mention the public But the 1982 Textbook Controversy, where some of Japanese textbooks described Japan's invasion as 'advancement' into China, triggered a heightened anti-Japanese sentiment in countries across East Asia. In particular, when the 'comfort women' issue surfaced in Korea in 1991 leading to active campaigns, including the lawsuits filed with the Japanese court, it made a great contribution to drawing keen attention from other countries to the matter of reparation. At that time, there were also several large-scale demonstrations in Taiwan staged by those from Taiwan who had served in the Japanese army. As a result, labor draft emerged as a social issue and there was an increased need to study the subject.

Today, this issue has been largely closed because the governments of Japan and Taiwan agreed to the terms of compensation, and the research of labor draft is not as active as before. There are some scholars still interested in the subject, but I should say not as much as in the 1990s.

Q. Lee Chang Wook Please briefly describe your experience in the study of oral history related to labor draft and 'comfort women.'

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai In 1994, I had a chance encounter with those drafted into the Japanese army during World War II. And it motivated me to start studying labor draft. The database of materials in regional history that I had compiled for over two years out of deep interest in the subject came in handy. I sent out a questionnaire to over 300 people by region and by military and naval special unit. But only forty of the interviews have been made public. There were many people who refused to give an interview, and there were others who consented to give an interview but refused to make it public. Taiwan has a history where it had been under martial law for decades until the late 1980s. That explains the social atmosphere that persisted until the early 1990s where those who had served in the Japanese army were afraid to talk about their past. On the other hand, those who had participated in the campaigns demanding compensation from Japan were very willing to answer their interview questions.

Q. Lee Chang Wook What were the form and scale of labor draft in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule?

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai They utilized the Bao-Jia system (保甲制), the neighborhood administrative system put in place to control the residents of Taiwan. Consequently, approximately 207,200 residents of Taiwan served in the Japanese army during World War II. Of them, approximately 92,000 served in the units stationed within Taiwan, whereas 60,000, 10,00, and 23,000 were sent to the South Pacific, Japan, and China, respectively. It is estimated that up to 53,000 of these people ended up dead or missing.

Q. Lee Chang Wook The Japanese Government-General of Taiwan, unlike the one of Korea, claimed to stand for civilian control. How is this being evaluated?

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai The situations of Korea and Taiwan before Japan's annexation of these countries were quite different from each other. For a start, Taiwan, ceded to Japan in 1905, was under Japanese control longer than Korea was. In addition, while Korea was an independent, sovereign state at the time of annexation by Japan, Taiwan was a region of Qing and officially ceded to Japan at the end of the Sino-Japanese War. Therefore, the resistance of the residents of Taiwan against Japanese control was not as strong as in Korea. In particular, starting from the Taisho period, control by governors-general with military backgrounds was replaced by civilian control. As a result, resistance against Japan has all but gone by around the 1940s.

Q. Lee Chang Wook How were post-war reparations and apologies made?

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai After the end of World War II, the government of Taiwan concluded the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, a treaty that specified post-war settlements. Signed by a total of 49 countries, this treaty made it clear that Japan had a liability of reparation for the Allies as the victors, but it also included the clause that the Allies may exempt Japan from reparation in consideration of its impoverished economy at the time. As a result, there were no more than four countries -the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Indonesia-that actually received monetary reparations from Japan. Of these countries, Myanmar was not a member of the Allies and Indonesia refused to ratify the Treaty. Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia are among the countries that received reparation from Japan in the form of economic cooperation and technical assistance. But it turned out to be the Japanese economy that benefited greatly from this economic cooperation-type reparation for it boosted the export of Japanese products and technologies.

Taiwan, however, didn't receive any government-to-government reparation. For a start, the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty signed in 1952 included the clause stating that the Kumintang-led government of Taiwan should "voluntarily waive the benefit of the services to be made available by Japan." Except that Article 3 of this treaty specified that the matter of debts between Japan and (the Republic of China in) Taiwan "shall be the subject of special arrangements" between the two governments. Actually the negotiation took place, but without results. This treaty was abrogated in 1972 as Japan severed its diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established diplomatic ties with China.

In 1952, with regard to the matter of individual compensation, the Japanese government legislated to start making compensation to those killed or wounded in war. In the following year, the military pension system was reinstated to allow the state to start supporting the bereaved families of those killed in war and the wounded. The problem, however, was that there was the 'nationality clause' which restricted those eligible for compensation to the Japanese citizens, except for A-bomb victims and war criminals. The citizens of Korea or Taiwan who had been drafted during World War II had lost their Japanese citizenship under the San Francisco Treaty, and, therefore, were not eligible for compensation. As a result, the victims of draft in Korea and Taiwan filed individual lawsuits against Japan, where, in most cases, this nationality clause was criticized.

Q. Lee Chang Wook I would like to know in detail how reparations and apologies were made to the individuals once the diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Japan were severed in the 1970s.

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai When the Korean victims of military sexual slavery by Japan filed lawsuits against the Japanese government in the 1990s, the aspects of human rights violation were highlighted. Likewise, Taiwan also appealed to humanitarianism in demanding reparation from Japan. At first, it was the opposing parties, particularly the SDP, rather than the ruling LDP that showed interest. But once Yasuhiro Nakasone took office as Prime Minister, the LDP was also asked for help. First addressed was the demand to have those people of Taiwan who had served in the Japanese army getting their salaries and deposits back, for these sums were large and easy to identify. With regard to war debts, Taiwan also identified the unpaid salaries of those killed or wounded in war as the biggest problem.

In January 1983, the budget planning special provision for resolving the issue of the salaries and savings was created in Japan. In 1988, the Japanese Diet decided that the bereaved families of those who were killed in action or those 'who were seriously wounded' during the WWII period would be paid 2 million yen per head. But many citizens of Taiwan denounced it as a double standard because this sum was outrageously low compared to what was paid to the Japanese bereaved families or wounded.

After Kiichi Miyazawa took office as Prime Minister in June 1993, the Japanese government officially announced for the first time that the debts owed to Taiwan would be paid, not at face value but after inflation adjustment. Afterwards, in March 1994, the lawmakers of Japan and Taiwan negotiated the matter for the first time, and it took place in an unofficial meeting because there were no official diplomatic relations between the two countries.

그렇지만But it wasn't until December 1994, approximately twelve years after it was first raised, that the matter finally was closed. There were more than 30,000 people who held the cost of war bonds and savings worth up to 1.9 billion yen at face value, but there seems to be a long way to go before these people receive reparations because they were not included in the 1994 reparation plan.

Currently, Japan does not recognize Taiwan as a state, so under the circumstances, it is realistically not easy to address the matter of official apology. Some politicians of Japan claim that Japan's official apology to China is counted as an apology to the people of Taiwan as well. Taiwan disagreed, but didn't insist on receiving an apology.

Conference on 'International Joint Research on the History of Exploitation by Imperial Japan' on November 20, 2014

 

Q. Lee Chang Wook It can be said that the matter of reparation in Taiwan has been nearly resolved. What do you think made the resolution possible?

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai Once the amount of reparations was determined, the reparations were paid starting from 1995. That's also when the negotiation with Japan ended. In addition to paying the reparations, Japan made efforts for indirect reparation through a number of exchange programs or exchange centers, and the like. To my knowledge, Japan is doing the same with China or Korea, not just with Taiwan. Under the agreement made with Japan in 1995, Taiwan is sending about 120 students to Japan as exchange students. Scholars in Taiwan are also being offered an opportunity to visit Japan for research. This agreement, renewed in 2005, will remain in effect until 2015.

Q. Lee Chang Wook Does that mean that there will be no more discussion related to labor draft in Taiwan?

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai The attitude toward the matter of labor draft differs from country to country. It is estimated that there were two to three thousand former 'comfort women' from Taiwan. But there are about a thousand people who acknowledged that they had been 'comfort women,' and only about a hundred of them gave an interview with scholars. Years have passed and there are less than twenty former 'comfort women' from Taiwan still alive today. Not just 'comfort women,' but the almost entire war generation is dying of old age. In the younger generation as their posterity, there are many people who assume a radically nationalistic attitude toward the past based on a few pieces of superficial knowledge, and there are also many people who are completely uninterested in the past. Most importantly, since the matter of compensation was concluded in the 1990s, the matter of labor draft is not as big a social issue in Taiwan as it was in the 1990s. This is in a sharp contrast with Korea or the Netherlands where voices are still being raised high about the 'comfort women' issue.

Q. Lee Chang Wook As a long-time scholar of labor draft, what advice would you give to scholars of labor draft in Korea?

A. Hui-yu Caroline Ts'ai It is important to have an attitude to conduct research based on solid evidence from a long-term perspective rather than being swayed too much by political factors. Scholars are supposed to have an attitude to conduct research with solid foundations. In addition, in order to ensure that labor draft will be studied with a balanced view, I think it is important to have frequent exchange between Korean scholars and researchers overseas, and to establish a climate conducive to joint research by people with various viewpoints.