ABSTRACT
As is well known, various settlers and foreign powers ruled Taiwan. It follows that the people of Taiwan experienced ‘multi-layered colonial rule’. For Bunun, an Austronesian indigenous people inhabiting the mountains, Japan was the first foreign ruler to govern them directly. Japan had ruled Taiwan for 50 years, from 1895 to 1945. More than 70 years later, this chapter describes how Bunun narrate the colonial situation they experienced and how their children and grandchildren recognise the former rulers. After overviewing modern governance policy against indigenous Austronesians by colonial Japan and the Republic of China (ROC), Bunun narratives on ‘Japan’ and its colonial rule are illustrated according to the four generations. Through discussions on the narratives of each generation, the following findings are presented: (1) the disparities in the images of ‘Japan’ and attitudes towards it among generations, from scepticism, vigilance, revolt, nostalgia, brainwashing, to insignificant other; (2) the similarity between the second generation’s ‘pro-Japanese’ and the third generation’s ‘anti-Japanese’ (or ‘pro-ROC’) stances; and (3) the third and fourth generations’ relativisation of Japan and ROC and the rise of ‘indigenism’.
