植民地台湾における「明治維新」認識

Abstract

本稿は，植民地台湾の人々が，日本の「近代」を取捨選択的に吸収していく中で， 近代化の契機に位置付けられる明治維新を如何に認識していたのかを，主に台湾の 士紳と新興知識人の視点から，総合的に明らかにすることを目指したものである． 両者は，明治維新を，西洋文明を模範とする「文明化」と規定した上で，同様に 台湾の文明化を提唱したが，士紳は，「維新」を単なるスローガンとし，自らの地 方名望家としての地位を確保するために，日本語を媒介とする近代的文教事業の促 進を唱えたに過ぎなかった．それとは対照的に，新興知識人は，自由や民主といっ た普遍的価値，さらには台湾の人々の政治参加を啓蒙的に求めていった．その際に， 黒船来航を契機とする開国から文明開化，また自由民権運動を経て憲法制定・国会 開設に至るまでの立憲過程の歴史を言論の道具として用いていた． だが，1920年代後期以降は新興知識人は左傾化し，1930年代以降は軍国主義の台 頭により忠君愛国主義が至上の価値になったことも加わり，両者の「明治維新」認 識はかき消される結果となった．

This paper attempts to take the perspective from the Taiwanese gentry and the newly-emerged intellectuals, to comprehensively clarify the notion that while colonial Taiwan was choosing to selectively adsorb “modernity” from Japan, how it viewed the “Meiji Restoration” which was regarded as a turning point for Japan to implement “modernization”.\nBoth groups admitted that the “Meiji Restoration” used Western civilization was the role model for the “civilizing process”. Both also advocated the need for Taiwan to “be civilized”. However, as a means to secure the status of their families in local society, the gentry treated the “restoration” as a slogan for promoting the modern educational enterprises which used the Japanese language as a media. In contrast, the newly-emerged intellectuals took the attitude to enlighten others, yearned for the universal values of Liberty and Democracy, along with the Taiwanese political participation. By that, they used Perry’s arrival as the beginning of the opening of the country, and all the historical process of constitutional movement, including the Movement for Liberty and Civil Rights, the promulgation of the constitution, and the opening of the parliament as tools of their debates and discourses.\nFinally, the newly-emerged intellectuals started to lean towards the Left in the late 1920s, together with the rise of militarism in the 1930s, resulting in the notion of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism to the nation as the supreme value. Accordingly, both the newly-emerged intellectuals and the gentry had no further ground for them to express their understanding of the “Meiji Restoration”.