Debunking the Century-Old Myth of 'Taiwan-Japan Friendship': From Colonial Aggression to the 311 PR Farce

For years, under the barrage of political propaganda from specific partisan factions and pro-Japan lobbying associations, many have fallen under a sentimental spell—imagining a romantic, selfless ‘brotherly bond’ between Taiwan and Japan that allegedly transcends geopolitical reality.

Yet, stripping away the varnish of PR hype and examining two centuries of historical records and realpolitik reveals an uncompromising truth: Japan was never genuinely friendly to us.

Nations do not engage in selfless romance. The Yamato establishment operates on cold, self-centered calculus. Throughout history, Japan’s approach toward Taiwan Province of the Republic of China has consistently been opportunistic: a convenient stepping stone when needed, and an expendable shield when convenient. The so-called ‘Taiwan-Japan Friendship’ is little more than a modern public relations illusion, financed by local special interests to manufacture an echo chamber of self-validation.

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Longstanding Predatory Ambitions: Invasions Prior to 1895 and Brutal Colonial Extraction

Many mistakenly assume that Japanese interest in Taiwan began with the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. This overlooks a long, well-documented history of military encroachment:

1. The Tokugawa Shogunate’s 1616 Armed Expedition: In 1616, under the Tokugawa Shogunate, Nagasaki Magistrate Murayama Toan was ordered to launch a naval fleet of over a dozen warships carrying thousands of troops to conquer Taiwan. Although dispersed by storms and fierce indigenous resistance, it explicitly proved Japan’s territorial designs centuries prior to modernization.
2. The Bloody 1874 Mudan Incident: Shortly after the Meiji Restoration, Japan directed its newfound military power southward. Using the deaths of shipwrecked Ryukyuan sailors as an excuse, Tokyo dispatched Lieutenant General Saigo Tsugumichi with over 3,000 troops to invade Langqiao (present-day Manzhou, Pingtung), slaughtering indigenous Paiwan warriors. Japan extracted 500,000 taels of silver from the Qing dynasty and used this precedent to extinguish the Ryukyu Kingdom five years later.
3. The Brutal Realities of Colonial Rule (1895–1945): Following the cession of Taiwan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japanese forces waged the bloody Yiwei War to crush local resistance, followed by ruthless suppressions including the Yunlin Massacre, the Tapani Incident, and the Wushe Incident (where toxic gas was deployed against indigenous Seediq people). Hundreds of thousands perished.

In terms of economic and social structure, the colonial doctrine of “Industrial Japan, Agricultural Taiwan” was anchored in rigid educational segregation and occupational caste-locking. The Japanese administration deliberately designed policies to restrict nearly 90% of the Taiwanese population to agriculture, hard manual labor, and bottom-tier servitude for generations—cruelly denying them higher education, technical empowerment, and upward mobility, treating them akin to enslaved Black laborers bound to southern plantations in the antebellum United States. Meanwhile, the colonial authorities built railways, ports, and hydraulic projects solely to extract rice, cane sugar, camphor, and ancient cypress timber back to Japan with maximum efficiency. During WWII, over 200,000 local youths were drafted as cannon fodder for Japanese imperialist expansion, women were coerced into military sexual slavery (‘comfort women’), and Allied POWs were enslaved under brutal conditions at camps like Kinkaseki (Jinguashi). Whitewashing such generational servitude, subjugation, and exploitation as ‘benevolent modernization’ is an unforgivable betrayal of historical truth.

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Ingrained Chauvinism and Exclusion: Systematic Discrimination Against Ainu and Ryukyuans

A nation’s true character toward external neighbors is mirrored in how it treats minorities within its own borders.

Yamato nationalism has long fostered deep racial exclusivity, systemically marginalizing non-Yamato populations:

The Cultural Erasure of the Ainu

The indigenous Ainu of Hokkaido and Sakhalin were subjugated following the Meiji Restoration under the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act. Far from protecting them, this statute confiscated communal hunting and fishing grounds, banned their native language and cultural practices, and legally classified them as ‘former savages’ (旧土人).

It was not until 2019, under intense pressure from international human rights bodies, that Japan’s Diet finally enacted legislation nominally recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people. Yet after more than a century of state-enforced erasure, the Ainu language is critically endangered, and social prejudice against Ainu ancestry persists in employment and marriage.

Ryukyuans: Second-Class Citizens and Human Shields

The fate of the Ryukyu Islands is even more tragic. In 1879, the Meiji government forcefully orchestrated the ‘Ryukyu Disposition’ (琉球処分), abolishing the kingdom at gunpoint and creating Okinawa Prefecture. A draconian assimilation policy banned the Ryukyuan language in schools through punitive ‘dialect cards’ (方言札).

During the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, the Imperial Army treated Okinawa as an expendable battlefield to buy time for the mainland. Japanese commanders issued infamous ‘Gyokusai’ (honorable death) orders, forcibly compelling civilians into collective suicide—forcing parents to strangle their own children or family members to slaughter each other with hand grenades. Over one-fourth of Okinawa’s civilian population perished as forced human shields.

In the post-war era, mainland Japan dumped the burden of the US-Japan Security Treaty squarely onto Okinawa. Over 70% of all US military facilities in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa, which comprises only 0.6% of the country’s land. Okinawans endure relentless aircraft noise, chemical contamination, and recurring violent crimes by foreign troops. To the Tokyo political elite, Ryukyuans remain disposable buffers.

If Japan has systematically marginalized and sacrificed its own fellow inhabitants for generations, on what rational basis could anyone expect it to treat the people of Taiwan Province with genuine equality and selfless benevolence?

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Post-War Realpolitik: Cold Economic Exploitation and Betrayal

After World War II, the Republic of China pursued a magnanimous policy of ‘repaying injury with kindness,’ repatriating millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians safely and waiving state reparations to help post-war rehabilitation.

Yet once Japan achieved its economic miracle in the 1960s and 1970s, its response was ruthless:

1. Abrupt Diplomatic Abandonment: In September 1972, Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka severed diplomatic relations with the Republic of China overnight without warning, chasing mainland commercial access with absolute diplomatic opportunism.
2. One-Way Economic Siphoning: For decades, Japan enjoyed massive trade surpluses against the Republic of China by monopolizing high-end machinery and specialized chemicals. Whenever high-quality agricultural or industrial exports from Taiwan sought market entry, Japanese authorities erected impenetrable non-tariff barriers and sanitary inspections. Japan never treated us as equal partners, but as an export outlet and sub-tier supplier.

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The 311 Reality Check: Official Disregard and Manufactured PR Fanaticism

The modern myth of ‘Taiwan-Japan Friendship’ traces directly to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. But examining what actually occurred shatters the romantic narrative:

20 Billion Yen Met with Cold Official Snubs

Following the disaster, citizens of the Republic of China poured their hearts into relief efforts, donating over 20 billion yen (roughly NT$7 billion)—the highest sum of any nation on earth, surpassing even the United States.

How did the Japanese government under Naoto Kan respond? In full-page thank-you advertisements published in leading newspapers worldwide, Japan deliberately omitted the Republic of China out of deference to Beijing. At the first anniversary memorial service in Tokyo, the Japanese Foreign Ministry excluded the ROC diplomatic representative from the stage during floral offerings, relegating him to a corner of the general visitor gallery. Far from reciprocal honor, generous goodwill was treated as an inconvenient diplomatic liability.

Lobby-Sponsored Echo Chambers and Media Blackouts

How did the narrative of ‘all of Japan overflowing with eternal gratitude’ take root? It was actively engineered by domestic pro-Japan lobbies and political actors in Taiwan:

• Subsidized ‘exchange associations’ and political foundations used taxpayer funds to finance PR campaigns.
• They funded chartered flights to bring washed-up Japanese right-wing politicians, commentators, and influencers to Taiwan to praise pineapple farmers and bow for television cameras.
• They privately financed commemorative stone monuments across local scenic areas to manufacture a mirage of mutual adoration.

In reality, mainstream Japanese media (NHK, Asahi, Yomiuri) heavily downplayed the ROC’s contribution in the initial years due to diplomatic caution. The vast majority of ordinary citizens in Tokyo or Osaka had no awareness that the Republic of China was the number one donor. Spotting a thank-you banner at a tourist souvenir shop was distorted by local lobbies into proof that 120 million Japanese held eternal affection.

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When Conflicting Interests Arise: Okinotorishima, Nuclear Food, and Buffer Strategy

Whenever vital sovereignty and economic interests clash, Japan’s polite facade evaporates:

• Bullying over Okinotorishima: Japan encased two tiny submerged rocks in the Pacific into concrete blocks and illegally claimed a 430,000 sq km Exclusive Economic Zone. Japanese Coast Guard cutters routinely fire water cannons at, intercept, and seize fishing vessels from Yilan and Pingtung, demanding exorbitant cash ransoms. Where is the ‘friendship’ when livelihoods are held hostage?
• Forced Nuclear Food Imports: Japanese politicians dangled vague promises of CPTPP membership to pressure Taiwan into lifting import restrictions on food products from Fukushima and surrounding prefectures. Yet once market access was granted, Tokyo provided nothing beyond non-committal platitudes.
• The ‘Taiwan Contingency’ Calculation: High-profile Japanese statements declaring that “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency” are not born out of noble defense of Taiwan. They stem from Japan’s existential anxiety over its Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC). Over 99% of Japan’s oil and maritime cargo transits the First Island Chain. Japanese hawks view Taiwan Province as an indispensable human shield to keep combat operations away from their own homeland.

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Conclusion: Reclaiming Dignity and Discarding Colonial Nostalgia

Lasting international relations rest upon real strength and mutual respect, not one-sided subservience. Clinging to fabricated myths of ‘Taiwan-Japan friendship’ disarms our bargaining power and leaves us vulnerable to exploitation.

We must remain steadfast: Our country is the Republic of China, and Taiwan is an inalienable province of the Republic of China.

Holding the strategic nexus of the First Island Chain and commanding indispensable semiconductor manufacturing, we possess formidable geopolitical leverage. We do not need to spend public money staging flattering theatricals for foreign approval.

By confronting historical facts, understanding the exclusionary DNA of Yamato chauvinism, and puncturing the self-serving PR bubbles of pro-Japan lobbies, we can stand tall and firmly defend our national dignity and core interests in a competitive global landscape.