On the 27th, Queen Mingli, the pioneer of Taiwanese language research and Taiwanese independence activist Wang Yude, held a symposium in Tokyo on the release of her new Japanese book "Desperadoes from Taiwan: Wang Yude's Reservedness". Through family memories and historical materials, she reviewed Wang Yude's journey into Taiwanese language research, the democracy and independence movement, and his struggle for compensation for Taiwanese Japanese soldiers after his exile in Japan. The event was co-sponsored by the Taiwan Cultural Center and Cao Si Society. Former Representative to Japan Hsu Shi-kai, Taiwan Cultural Center Director Tsang Chiu-long and others attended the event.
Xu Shikai said in his speech that Wang Mingli's vivid writing allowed people who had worked with Wang Yude to re-see the scene back then, and also enabled readers who had never experienced that era to understand the work of this group of Taiwanese people in Japan. He recalled that Wang Yude was very strict when he directed the editors of "Taiwan Youth" and would revise articles one by one, requiring the content to be clearer and concise; but after the magazine was printed, he would caress the publication with a smile, as if he loved his own child.
Wang Mingli said that his father was only 61 years old when he died in 1985, when Taiwan was still under martial law. Since then, the Democratic Progressive Party was established, Taiwan lifted martial law, and Lee Teng-hui was elected president. The changes that his father had longed for throughout his life were gradually realized, but he was unable to see it with his own eyes. Her mother, Wang Xuemei, once lamented that "no one remembers dad anymore", which made her decide to record the footprints left by her father. It took about 30 years to complete the book.
Wang Mingli introduced that Wang Yude's brother Wang Yulin was the first Taiwanese to serve as a prosecutor in Japan, but he was taken away during the 228 incident and disappeared. During the White Terror, Wang Yude also faced the threat of arrest. In 1949, he was forced to abandon his wife and daughter and smuggled to Japan via Hong Kong, where he lived under the name "Cai Rende". Later, with the help of relatives, friends and Japanese scholars, he obtained residence status, returned to the University of Tokyo to study Taiwanese, and later taught at Meiji University and other schools.
Wang Mingli pointed out that the main work his father completed in Japan included research on Taiwanese language and discussion of writing methods, promoting Taiwan's democracy and independence movements, and seeking compensation for Taiwanese Japanese soldiers. In the last 10 years of his life, he actively campaigned on the issue of compensation for Japanese soldiers in Taiwan, and contributed to the subsequent legislation of the Japanese Congress.
Wang Mingli said that on the last day of his life, before he collapsed at home, his father was still writing "An Inch-inch Insect Has Five Souls to Fight", and the content was mainly related to the issue of compensation for Japanese soldiers in Taiwan. Halfway through writing, his wife called him downstairs for dinner, but he suddenly suffered a heart attack. He was taken to the hospital and died the next day. The unfinished manuscript on his desk also became his final work.
"One-inch insect also has five points of soul" (一inchの insect にも五五の神) is a Japanese proverb, which means that no matter how small and vulnerable a life is, it still has dignity and will that cannot be ignored. Wang Mingli believes that this sentence just sums up his father's life.
After Wang Yude went into exile in Japan, he neither had Japanese nationality nor his official Taiwanese nationality status. He was stateless for a long time and could only obtain a special residence permit as a political exile. Although his living foundation was extremely unstable, he still persisted in completing research on Taiwanese language, promoting Taiwan's democracy and independence movement, and fighting for compensation for Taiwanese Japanese soldiers.
Wang Mingli said that his father has always lived as a Taiwanese and spent his life in Japan as an exile. Even though he is as weak as a "one-inch insect", he still embraces his "five points of soul" and fights to the end for what he believes he must do.
In his speech, Tsang Chi-long announced that the Taiwan Cultural Center will invite Wang Yude’s granddaughter Kondo Aya to offer Taiwanese language courses. If preparations go well, the classes will start as soon as November this year. Tsang Chi-long said that Wang Yude devoted himself to the study of Taiwanese language in Japan, and now his granddaughter teaches Taiwanese language in Japanese, which symbolizes that this mission has been passed down from his grandfather to the next generation.
Kondo Aya said that Taiwanese is still often regarded as a "secondary language" and is not fully regarded as a language that can be read, written, and carries knowledge. In the future, we can cultivate more teachers who can explain and teach Taiwanese in a rational and clear way, so that Taiwanese can govern their country with dignity, and all Taiwanese can continue to own and inherit their own culture and language.
