I think that that is so, to some extent:
Sorry for the Chinese-language quote; I think this chapter should say about as much as the above Wikipedia article:
Formosan enthusiasm for “liberation” lasted about six weeks. Posters began to appear here and there lampooning Nationalist soldiers and showing Chen Yi as a fat pig. He was in fact short and fat, beady-eyed and heavy-jowled, an easy target for caricature. “Dogs go and pigs come!” was scrawled up everywhere on Taipei’s walls and heard everywhere in private conversation. “At least the Japanese dogs protected the property!”
–Chapter 5 of Kerr's "Formosa Betrayed"
But I think it’s also possible that during that fifty-year period of Japanese rule, Taiwanese began to be attracted to some aspects of the Japanese way of living and doing things (I hope I can be forgiven for my reposting and self-quoting), and I think it’s understandable that they had trouble adjusting to the new regime:
Then how about a comparison of Taiwan with Taiwan?
[quote]The towns were beautifully laid out and well planned. The more important buildings were built of concrete and/or brick, with the upper stories overhanging the foot-path or side-walk to give protection to the pedestrian from the sun. The Chinese authorities had allowed these to be blocked by stalls, bicycle racks and cars.[/quote]–Allan J. Shackleton, Formosa Calling: An Eyewitness Account of the February 28th, 1947, Incident, page 3
h…
Of course I can’t give a first-hand account of how things were, but by some pretty reliable reports, things seem to have been looking rather poorly by 1947.
I guess this quote seems to describe some of the conditions that led to the uprising that began on February 28, 1947:
. . . at the end of the war, the price of rice was 30 dollars per catty; afterward, consumer prices began to rise, factories were shut down, and now the price of rice has jumped from 30 to 1,400 dollars per catty. Taiwan …
No, I think that would require the talents and efforts of a professional scholar, and probably one who was willing to devote a quite a bit of time and hard work to the subject. But I think that by borrowing some of the writings of others, I can provide a few pencil strokes toward the beginnings of a rough sketch:
[quote]The destruction of the factories [by U. S. bombing] brought unemployment, unemployment to which the Chinese added by bringing over their own relatives and friends and by depor…
And there’s Allen J. Shackleton’s account, Formosa Calling ; he was from New Zealand. Maybe George Kerr talked about the upside of Japanese influence and I forgot it, but in any case, I found Shackleton’s description of railroads, electrical power, other infrastructure, and lifestyle, memorable, even though brief. He seemed to admire the Japanese, and by extension the Taiwanese.
That’s all I can come up with right now.
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