1.2. Buddhism during the Japanese occupation

 

After China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Taiwan fell to Japan in the treaty of Shimonoseki and became its first colony (second, if the Ryūkyū Islands are counted). The Japanese carried out a wide range of economical and social measures that were aimed at turning Taiwan into a part of a future Japanese empire. Because of the nearly total japanisation of the education system, Japanese influence is present in certain aspects of Taiwanese culture even today.

For both orthodox Buddhism in Taiwan, as well as for the Zhaijiao and Daoist sects, the arrival of the Japanese led to great changes in the way religion on the island was organised. During the first twenty years the colonial rulers did not interfere in religious matters, but to their credit, studied the situation systematically. These studies and surveys are today the most valuable and reliable source for the study of the religious setting in 19th century Taiwan. After an unsuccessful uprising connected with a Zhaitang temple (the so-called Xilaian shijian) in 1915, the Japanese attitude towards the local religion changed and strong efforts were made to control religious groups. Zhaijiao sects and Buddhist ordination lineages alike had either to associate themselves <pb n="125"/>with Japanese Buddhist sects or join island-wide ‘patriotic’ associations[5] that were inspired or co-founded by Japanese sects.[6]

 

Japanese Buddhism entered Taiwan at the heels of the Japanese colonists. In the early stages of the occupation, when there were frequent revolts by ethnic Chinese and aboriginal people, Japanese priests served as chaplains in the Japanese army. Later they catered to Japanese civilians that immigrated to Taiwan and finally they started missionary activities on a wider range aimed at both Chinese and aboriginal Taiwanese. In the end, most Japanese Buddhist sects had representatives in Taiwan and a survey shows that in 1941 65 Japanese temples had been constructed since the start of the occupation.[7] The Sōtō and Rinzai schools deployed the highest numbers of missionaries, but even so their efforts can hardly be called successful. The number of Chinese devotees stayed negligible. After fifty years of proselytising there were only about 28,000 Taiwanese who were officially registered with Japanese Buddhist institutions.

 

While during the first decades the attitude of the colonial government towards religion was relatively tolerant, this too, changed when all of Japan succumbed to the nationalistic lunacy of the thirties. In the mid-thirties a “Japanisation Movement” (kominka undo) policy was formulated. For Taiwan this meant nothing less than an all-out attempt to abolish Chinese language, culture and tradition. The use of the Chinese languages was forbidden at school and Japanese became the only medium of instruction. From 1938-1940 with a campaign called “temple restructuring” (jibyo seiri) the Japanese rule turned into full-fledged religious suppression, for restructuring effectively meant the razing of the temple structures and the burning of religious images. “Purely” Buddhist temples, however, were mostly spared (their association with Japanese sects offered some protection), though the same could not be said for Daoist temples or Zhaitang halls, and a large number of those were destroyed.

 

<pb n="126"/>In spite of all the pressure the fifty years of foreign rule also had its positive effects for Buddhism. The tightrope-walk between official co-operation with Japanese Buddhism and continued contacts with the mainland was also a creative process from which Taiwanese Buddhism gained a sense of identity. During this period a number of monks successfully developed traditional Chinese Buddhism on Taiwan.[8] Through their efforts, distinct ordination lineages were for the first time established and more monks were ordained according to Chinese ordination rites during the Japanese occupation than ever before.[9]

 

 

1.3 Taiwanese Buddhism from 1945 to 1989

 

In line with the terms of the Cairo Declaration (Dec. 1943) Taiwan was returned to Chinese control after the allied victory. In October 1945 the Nationalist government in Chongqing dispatched Chen Yi as governor, who ruled without any mandate from the Taiwanese and often against their wishes. A revolt in February 1947 was ruthlessly put down, and from that time on, it is appropriate to speak of the government as a Nationalist regime that ruled Taiwan until its peaceful transition to democracy in the late eighties.

 

After Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Party lost the Civil War (1946-1949) on the mainland, Taiwan was chosen as the safest retreat. Among the 1.5 million mainlanders that fled to Taiwan in 1949-1950 (mainly the remainder of Chiang’s army and bureaucracy) there were also a few monks. Some had been drafted to the army; some managed to travel via Hong Kong or devised other ways of passage. Altogether not more than 100 monks, these men have nevertheless determined the course of Taiwanese Buddhism until today. What set them apart from their Taiwanese brethren was mainly their superior education. Almost half of the group came from Northern Jiangsu that in those days was considered the place in China where Buddhism was practised in its fullest form, with large, public monastic centres and seminaries. Among those that came to Taiwan were some highly respected elders who had served as abbots in renowned monasteries.