Taihoku Higher School class magazine hand-drawn cover -

on the eve of World War II.

George H. Kerr taught in Taihoku Higher School in 1938-1940.

Lee who taught in Yanping and Lim who studied in Yanping

several decades apart.

(Source Freddy Lim Facebook Page.)

Speaking in fluent Japanese in 1994 to Ryōtarō Shiba (司馬遼太郎), a Japanese writer best known for his novel about historical event in Japan, President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said, “I was Japanese until I turned 22.”

When Lee was 22, Tokyo’s surrender brought an end to World War II, and also to Japan’s fifty-year colonial rule over Taiwan.

Lee’s passing on July 30, 2020 marks a closure for Taiwanese people's memories of Japanese rule.

Lee took his Japanese name Iwasato Masao (岩里政男) in 1940, the year Japanese government announced a name-change ‘Japanization’ policy to eradicate identity of their colonial subjects. It was Lee’s father, however, who first brought the Japanese surname Iwasato into his family, while serving as a policeman. That wasn’t an unusual practice among Taiwanese fathers in that era, if they were keen to raise their family’s social status.

A year later, Lee was admitted to the colonial government’s Taihoku Higher School (台灣總督府台北高等學校, today’s National Taiwan Normal University).

Established in 1922, the school offered a seven-year program, graduation from which guaranteed entry to Taihoku Imperial University (today’s National Taiwan University). Of the 38 elite high schools Japan created before World War II to prepare students for admission to Japan’s Imperial Universities system, Taihoku Higher School was the only one in Taiwan. The acceptance rate was said to have been a mere 0.1%, and Lee was one of four Taiwanese accepted in 1941 (out of a total of 38).

In a 2012 documentary commemorating the school, Lee spoke of the school’s influence on him: “In the two-and-a-half years I studied there, it changed my life. I learned to lead my life with direction and not be led. It opened up, broadened, and deepened my horizons, which immensely benefited me throughout my career. I was always in good company with books such as Goethe’s Faust and Nietzsche’s philosophy. The book that influenced me most was Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle.”

Lee won a scholarship to Kyoto Imperial University, where he studied agriculture and graduated in 1946. Lee restored his Chinese name and returned to Taiwan to continue his education at National Taiwan University. There he earned a bachelor degree in agricultural science in 1948.

In the meantime in 1946 in Tokyo, two of Lee’s Taiwanese acquaintances, my maternal grandfather Chu Chow-yang (朱昭陽) gave up a high-profile Japan’s Ministry of Finance position in Tokyo, took the family including my then 16 years old mother, with minimal personal belongings on a gruesome boat trip back to Taiwan. Shortly after settled in Taipei, with the help of Sung Chin-ying (宋進英, who was a lawyer and a Taihoku Higher School alumni) co-found Yanping College (延平學院).

Yanping was the first college in Taiwan founded by Taiwanese. Within a year, Chu and Sung’s ambition had been brutally destroyed, and the school forced to shut down, in the wake of the February 28 Incident. Several staff and students were arrested, tortured, or worse.

The Transitional Justice Commission (促進轉型正義委員會) reviewed the guilty verdicts of Yanping teachers and students; belated justice was served when President Tsai Ing-wen issued an exoneration certificate on January 21, 2020.

Despite extreme financial pressures and political threats, the college began to regroup in 1948. Notable Taiwanese intellectuals joined the teaching staff, among them Lee Teng-hui and John Lai (賴永祥), a Taihoku Higher School alumni who later became head of the Harvard-Yenching Library.

John Lai today in Taiwan is best known for his ‘Elder John Lai’s archives’ "We hope these on-line resources would help who like to know more or study history of Christianity (especially Presbyterian Church) in Taiwan in some ways." (Recommend Read)

In his memoir, Chu — who passed away in 2002 — fondly recalled talking with Lee about Yanping’s past, present and future during the latter’s term as Taipei mayor. (See My Grandfather and Lee Teng-hui)

Yanping is today a prestigious private high school on Jianguo South Road (建國南路) in Taipei. Notable alumni include politician Kang Ning-hsiang (康寧祥), filmmaker Wu Nien-jen (吳念真), and musician-turned-lawmaker Freddy Lim (林昶佐).

The Taihoku Higher School Alumni Association gathering 2020

On September 18 2020, on behalf of my belated father, I was invited to National Taiwan Normal University attending a special event but on this day something else significant “Remembering Lee Teng-hui” and a special exhibition “Plants collections by teachers and students in the 1920-1930s”.

It was an emotional and mesmerizing days for all who involved – organizors, NTNU staff and admins, and naturally the remaining proud alumni and family representations of this historical school.

Koo Kwang-ming 辜寬敏 and his brother Koo Chen-fu 辜振甫 are both
Taihoku Higher alumni.

The remaining few (my father’s classmates) shared a special memory of their English teacher George Kerr 葛超智 ( a United States diplomat during World War II, and in later years an author and an academic.) who taught in Taihoku High 1938-1940.

Kabira Chōsei 川平朝清 ( Notable alumni who was born in Taichung and who has a unique and diverse perspective on World War II.) and George Kerr reunited in 1965 in USA at which time Kerr gave Kabira an English edition of 'Formosa Betrayed'

Shedding Light on “Formosa’sBetrayal”: Kabira Chōsei on George Kerr and Taiwanese History (Recommend Read)

Taihoku Higher School Plants collection (1920 - 1940) exhibition

Kudos to NTNU staff and researchers painstaking efforts to uncover collections buried for eighty years (!) and present us today this amazing and beautiful exhibition!