Taiwanese Migrants and the Development of “Japanese Tawau” in Prewar British North Borneo (臺灣移民與戰前英屬北婆羅洲「日本人的斗湖」之開發)

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This paper examines two waves of Japanese recruitment of Taiwanese migrants to British North Borneo (Sabah, Malaysia today) before World Warii. The North Borneo Chartered Company that governed the region from 1881 encouraged the inflow of migrants and foreign capital. By the time when Japan started to kick off its first wave of labor recruitment Taiwan in around 1915, ethnic Chinese migrants from the Straits Settlements and South China had formed significant communities in the shores of British North Borneo. But local labor power could not meet up the demand of the bourgeoning Japanese enterprises in mining, farming, and fishery industries in British North Borneo in general and in Tawau district in particular. Japan thus attempted to recruit workers from Taiwan to make up the insufficient number of Chinese migrants. In the 1920s, compared with their Chinese counterparts from South China, most Taiwanese did not settle in Borneo after their labor contract expired. The Japanese plan of developing a “Taiwan village” did not come true. In 1938, when Japan launched another launch another migrant scheme to send out Taiwanese to North Borneo, Japanese colonial regime in Taiwan rendered substantial capital and technology to the Taiwanese migrants. Now, Japan expected the Taiwanese to contribute more than their labor power but their connections with other Chinese descendants who had already settled there. In other words, Japan considered the interest of the Taiwanese migrants as part of the interests of the Japanese empire. The roles of prewar Taiwanese migration to British North Borneo should thus be understood by Japan’s Southward Expansion.本文探討1917年與1938年日本人兩波召募臺灣勞工前往英屬北婆羅洲（今馬來西亞沙巴）斗湖一帶的過程和影響。在英國鼓勵日本招募華工來開發當地的背景下，1917年時日本招募臺灣人的動機，最主要是為了因應華工招募不足的困境而採取的臨時性措施，臺灣人被視為華工的替代品。相對於華工，臺灣移工也沒有在當地形成久居的社區。而在1938年臺灣拓殖株式會社提出的移民計畫中，臺灣人已經不只是單純的勞動力，背後還有臺灣總督府為使其定居的經費補助。這或許便是臺拓計畫中所提及臺灣人日本化的成果：可賦予臺灣人更大的任務，去面對人口占居多數的斗湖華人。戰前臺灣人移居北婆羅洲可說是伴隨著總督府南進的風潮與政策中，扮演了不同階段所需要的角色。 (This article is in Chinese).