The Development and Utilization of Marginal Lands in Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Period — the Yunlin Area as Example

• Main Authors: Shu-Wan Ting, 丁淑婉
• Other Authors: 林呈蓉
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40108610578984552893

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 歷史學系碩士班 === 98 === Due to the natural, geographical environments, Yun-lin’s inland sand hills was pervasive in the Ching dynasty, and hence lead to the impeded drainage of sinkage in coastal area and the low drainage development of farmlands, which ended up in the low production of land. According to the historical statistics, the Han people fertilized the land until the period of Kanghsi, Yong Zheng emperor. However, the development of these late-fertilized wild plains, for the Ching Dynasty, it was easy to claim the land ownership, only because the Court didn’t make an aggressive movement and less consistent for the marginal land. Not only the way of obtaining complied with conventional regulations, but also influenced by the constitution of cultivation, lead to the unclear rights of lands. This confounded the tax liability and made the land sale problematic. After Japanese ruling of Taiwan, the development of marginal land became aggressive, in order to improve the economy of colony, Japanese initiated the investigation to obtain the ownership of land. During the early Japanese colonial period, the government released a series of reward policies and through announcing those compensative policies, the companies then took hold of the development of marginal land in Yunlin, particularly in the charge of Dai Nippon Sugar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Nakazawa Hikokichi’s Taiwan Development Company. By way of merging other Japanese sugar joint-stock companies, the Dai Nippon Sugar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. took charge of the land and access to raw sugarcane areas. After 1917, the territories of Dai Nippon Sugar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. spread and reached the entire Yunlin area, including the development of marginal lands, which later rendered the establishment of Taiwan Governor-General Office’s future cultivation of the tidal land. The Taiwan Development Company, which founded by Taiwan Governor-General Office was a National Policy Company, which cultivated the marginal land not by reward policy, but rather through national policy. And this development mainly focus on land reclaimed along the shore, now Mailiao Township, Taisi Township, and Kouhu township in Yunlin, was meant to increase the acreage under cultivation. The first chapter (introduction), begins in discussing the motivation and research purposes of this thesis, and then through this research analyzing and reviewing prior relevant studies to this thesis, and finally define the scope of this research, research method and chapters structure. The second chapter will start by discussing the natural environment of the Yunlin area, further in discussing the Ching Dynasty, the method of how the Han people obtained the marginal land and cultivated it, and analyze the use patterns of these coastal land, and finally discussing relevant laws regarding to land survey and rewarding cultivation during the beginning of Japanese rule. The third chapter discusses the development in Yunlin led by the Japanese club during the beginning of Japanese rule, and finally accounts the ups and downs of the relationship among the relevant clubs, and how they impact the development areas. The forth chapter discusses the appearance of Southeast-forward Policy, since the 1920s, as Japan''s domestic political, economic, and international diplomacy on the interaction of the events. To conclude, we’ll focus on the Taiwan Development Company’s rise with their measure of Southeast-forward Policy, and then explain how the company is related to the marginal land development in Yunlin.