Struggle for the legal status of the Taiwanese residents in Japan during the decolonization process after WWⅡ : A case study on Taiwanese communities in Kobe

Okano, Shota

Yeh, Hsiang-tai

華僑

台日關係

去殖民化

身份證

Taiwanese Overseas

Chinese Overseas

Taiwan-Japan Relation

Decolonization

Identification documents

Today, despite the banner of “multiculturalism” raised high, there are still a part of the members of Republic of China being excluded by the Taiwanese society. Kakyō (華僑), for example, is one of those members. As in the cases shown in this paper, there are many Taiwanese identified themselves as Kakyō, participated the Kakyō organisations and became the leader of those organisations. Lately, the problematic of why Taiwanese residents recognised themselves as Kakyō has been well discussed. Nonetheless, the period from 1945 to 1946 was left behind the discussion because the condition/legal status of Taiwanese residents in Japan then was extremely complicated, and that there was a lack of historical materials. Therefore, this paper examines the problematics of how the Taiwanese people who have no specific legal status re-created their own “nationality” after they lost their Japanese nationality and how they rebuilt their life in post-war Japan. By collecting the identity documents “中華民國台灣省民 證” issued by People’s Association of Taiwan Province in Kobe (神戸台灣省民會) from November 1945, this paper intends to explore its contextual factors and intention, and the process of its struggling with a series of new problems turning up. This paper, hence, seeks to conclude: under the complex international conjuncture of shifting situation in East Asia and movement of Communism, Taiwanese residents in Japan, who lost and had to re-create their Identification documents had chosen to receive and be articulated with Kakyō that goes far beyond the scope of Taiwanese, so as to be able to struggle for breath in postwar Japan.