this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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It was ruled by Japan for 50 years, they had a project to eradicate and replace local Taiwanese culture with Japanese culture. They imported around half a million Japanese settlers to set up their own little apartheid villages during this era.
AAAAAH, I get it now, thank you.
When you say local Taiwanese culture... that word didn't exist back then. It's a recently coined word.
Are you referring to the Japanese eradicating the local Han culture on the province of Taiwan?
Or are you referring to the indigenous peoples of the island chain (referred to as the Formosans during the time of Japanese occupation)?
No, you're right, I mean Japan's goal was to eradicate the culture of the population already living on the island.
So the Han, predominantly.
So there's still the issue of the Han displacing the indigenous peoples of the island chain. I am not as familiar with that process. I don't believe it was similar to European settler colonialism, given what I know about Chinese political history and their long commitment to peaceful coexistence. But it's something that ultimately needs to be processed by the Chinese and the indigenous peoples there.
Yeah, here's the difference between how the Communists handled the multiculturalism vs how the nationalis did. The nationalists massacred the indigenous population of Taiwan while the Communists integrated the the 56 ethnic groups on the mainland.
I assume by "the nationalists" you mean the KMT, but the large migration of the Han to the island happened in the 1600s.
And doing a little more research (thanks for the impetus) it looks like that migration was a process that was initially driven by the Dutch East India Company.
Then it was driven by occupying it with Chinese military to keep the Dutch out.
But that process never stopped and Han settlers became dominant over the next century.
Then the Japanese imperialized. Then the KMT terrorized it.
But the original indigenous people still live there and the national question will likely arise at some point after reintegration.