日本植民地下の台湾における青年団 : 1940-43年の制度面を中心に

抄録

Young men's leagues ("Seinen-dan") created by the Japanese government for the Han people in Taiwan (hereafter called Taiwanese) seem to have played a significant role in ultimately mobilizing the Taiwanese as soldiers. In previous studies I have illustrated that Taiwanese young men's leagues, that until the first half of the 1930s had been closely organized with the communities called gaisho (administrative units equivalent to towns and villages in Japan) and served as institutions for training elites. The leagues were transformed in the late 1930s into organizations used to impose military training on young people who recently graduated from elementary schools, in order to implement the three major policies of colonial Taiwan, namely "Japanization, " "industrialization, " and "southward expansion." This paper explores the system of young men's leagues in Taiwan between 1940 and 1943 when the mobilization of youth was one of the most important goals of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. Around this period, the establishment of youth schools ("Seinen Gakko") for Taiwanese students was promoted and the special Army volunteer program began in earnest in 1942. By examining young men's leagues in relation to these systems, I attempt to explain the social meaning of young men's leagues within the context of colonial Taiwan, referring to Taiwan Kyoiku (the journal published by the Taiwan Education Society), magazines published for indoctrination, the official gazette published by the Taiwanese Government-General, and Kobun Ruijyu owned by the National Archives of Japan, among others. The analysis of these materials uncovered the following historical facts. In all-out war, a number of youth-oriented programs were introduced in Taiwan between 1940 and 1943, including the national elementary school system ("Kokumin Gakko") in April 1941, the special Army volunteer system in April 1942, and the compulsory education system for elementary schools and the spread of youth schools throughout Taiwan in April 1943. In this climate, young men's leagues in Taiwan underwent two major changes. In December 1941, they were reorganized as Taiwanese Youth Leagues ("Taiwan Seishonen-dan") and young men's leagues emerged as organizations closely aligned with national elementary schools while simultaneously reinforcing their identity as organizations of so-called "working youth" who chose not to go on to secondary schools and higher schools. Thus, as the governing body of working youth, young men's leagues encouraged working youth to enlist under the special volunteer system and promoted Japanization. In April 1943, as the effort to upgrade youth schools for Taiwanese began throughout Taiwan, young men's leagues were reorganized as one of the groups under the umbrella of Komin Hokokai, thereby establishing their position as an organization to bring all working youth in the community under control. In sum, it can be argued that young men's leagues, much like school education, played a central role in the indoctrination (or education) of youth in colonial Taiwan.