After the unconditional surrender of Japan in August 1945, Formosan Military Personnel (including labour conscripts) serving in the Japanese army in various parts of present-day Indonesia voluntarily left their units and established the Taiwan Tongxiang Hui (臺灣同郷會) where they lived by themselves. They knew that according to the Cairo Declaration of 1943, Formosa had been returned to China, and that they were now Chinese nationals. In the Taiwan Tongxiang Hui at Jakarta while waiting to be repatriated, many Formosans began to learn Mandarin (國語), and in May 1946 the more intellectually inclined formed an association known as the Mei Tai Kai (明台會: the Association for Rationalising Taiwan) to debate the future of Formosa. After returning home, the Association planned to co-operate with the Nationalist government (中華民國政府＝國民黨) on all matters concerning the political, social and economic management of the island province in order to promote the interests and welfare of all inhabitants. Though the Association simply faded away into oblivion after repatriation due to the lack of political freedom under the oppressive conditions enforced by Chen Yi (陳儀), the governor of Taiwan, we do have a record of the ideas espoused by members for they appear in the newsletter of the Association, the Mei Tai Hō (明台報). This is a valuable source for understanding Formosan aspirations and views before the incident of February 27 1947, and the massacre of Formosan civilians by Nationalist troops that ensued in March.
This article attempts to explain the circumstances surrounding the publication of the Mei Tai Hō and to provide a rough outline of the type of ideas it carries. Information concerning the background was collected through interviews with two former members of the Association; the former Chairman, Lin Yiqian (林益謙) and a former committee member Chen Wuxiong (陳武雄), better known by his pen name, Chen Qianwu (陳千武). A reprint of all five issues of the original that are held by Chen Wuxiong follows this article. Okazaki Ikuko (岡崎郁子), associate professor at Kibi International University (吉備国際大学), has arranged the text for reprinting trying as much as possible to preserve the orthography of the original.
Members published the Mei Tai Hō in mimeograph form while waiting for the repatriation ship in the PWO camp for Formosans at Singapore June 1946. The five issues appeared within a few days of each other; first (18th June) second (19th June), third (20th June), fourth (22nd June) and fifth (24th June). Each issue was published as a leaflet with articles and poems in Japanese and Chinese written on both sides. About twenty people contributed to the Newsletter, and though many writers used pen names, some did sign their real names. The main contributors who can be identified include Lin Yiqian, Chen Wuxiong, Lin Hejia (林和甲), Zhang Ruiyuan (張瑞源), Xiao Zaihuo (蕭再火), Zheng Qingfu (鄭清福), Wu Peihui (呉培輝), Du Cunli (杜存禮) and Chen Youquan (陳有全).
In their contributions, writers poured forth their hopes and expectations for building a New Formosa. One author had a scheme for industrialising the island by promoting the export of agricultural produce and even maintained that complete self-rule (完全自治) could be realised within a few years with proper preparation. Another writer felt confident that given its high level of development Formosa would become a model province for China. The main keywords that consistently appear throughout the newsletter are unification with China, the fostering of love for the country, promotion of unity and the eradication of corruption. The end of the war had fired Formosans with an ardent interest in their own future. Despite some differences of opinion, writers shared two common feelings; first, the excitement of liberation from Japanese colonial rule, and the enthusiastic anticipation that they held for the new age in which Formosans expected to become the masters of their own island and, second a duty to unite and co-operate with the Nationalist government in building a new Formosa along the lines of the Three People's Principles of Sun Yat-sen (三民主義). But news of corruption in the Nationalist regime, particularly exploitation by Central Government officials and carpetbagging by mainlanders in Formosa brought disappointment, and caused many authors to harbour doubts about the ability of the Nationalists to govern their island.
This situation created subtle, but significant differences in the tone of the views that members voiced. Basically writers can be divided into two groups; the first includes the optimists who merely regarded these defects as minor blemishes that really will not seriously impair the rosy future that lay ahead, and the second encompasses the disenchanted who, though apprehensive about the Nationalists' lack of honest and efficient administration, still pinned their hopes on the glimmer of light that the Japanese defeat had radiated. Some exponents in the second group even advocated mounting a resistance movement against the government if it failed to work in the interest of Formosans. Their worst fears turned true with the incident of February 27 1947, which implanted in them an intense mistrust of mainlanders in general, and the Nationalists (國民黨) in particular. This mistrust later exercised a strong influence on political change on the island and became a prime moving force behind the overthrow of single party rule by the Nationalists, and is generally regarded as a key factor in the origin of Formosan Independence thought. But members of the Mei Tai Kai had expressed serious doubts about the Nationalists in June 1946, before the incident broke out, and in this sense it is an important source for tracing the genesis of post-war Formosan political thought.