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Taiwan, O My Homeland
Taiwan, O my Homeland,
The soil I live and die on,
Where ten million of my fellow countrymen
With me forever share every joy and grief.
Every drop of blood, sweat and tears
Shed over the soil had my ancestors,
Solely in search of good fortune.
Let be past our humiliation-stained past
Let us pry open afresh today
A wholly new history of our own
— Ong Iok-tek
The editor takes the liberty of transcribing in its entirety the preface by Ng Chiau-tong originally written for the Collection of Works of Dr. Ong, including the closing paragraph in which
the author expresses his words of gratitude to those who had contributed to have the collection published.
Seventeen years having elapsed since the passing of Dr. Ong Iok-tek, I feel very much elated to see one of his major works thus published.
Hailed in Tainan, Dr. Ong devoted his entire life to the cause of Taiwan independence movement. He was a spiritual leader and the key man of the movement; it was under his auspices that “The
Taiwan Youth”, the predecessor of the World United Formosans for Independence, was inaugurated in 1960. At the height of the Chiang Kai-shek regime’s white terror, Taiwan society was under the
grossest of threats, academics being silenced and the Taiwanese populace disrespected and looked down upon as second-class citizens. Dr. Ong was convinced that only upon the establishment of
their own nation could the Taiwanese ever free themselves of the misery. That conviction drove him to setting on the arduous road of advocating Taiwan independence.
The magazine “Taiwan Youth “ was a ray of hope for the Taiwanese at that moment of time. A regularly published magazine of a rich variety of theses and contributions on political and cultural
issues confronting Taiwan at that time, the “Taiwan Youth “ targeted inspiring spiritual awareness of the Taiwanese. However, the task of promoting such political awareness was for him easier
said than done.
Dr. Ong was still then a doctoral student at Tokyo University and concurrently a part-time adjunct instructor at the College of Commerce, Meiji University. Out of his meager income he covered
the costs of several Taiwanese students helping him running the magazine. He had quite a heavy load of burdens to bear; while writing essays for the magazine and elsewhere, correcting
manuscripts in Japanese, proofreading, printing, mailing, and all the other chores, he personally took part in raising money to keep the magazine going.
The Taiwan Youth was started in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, initially with Taiwanese supporters living in and around Tokyo. Gradually support started coming from Kobe, Osaka and other areas,
and soon from the United States in increasing numbers from among the Taiwanese studying there. Later, the Taiwan Youth” changed its name first to the “Society of Taiwan Youth”, then to the
“Taiwan Youth Independence Alliance” and, in 1970, as groups of movement for Taiwan independence mushrooming all over the world, it renamed itself again to the “Taiwan Independence Alliance”,
and eventually (19ｘｘ) to the World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI). Dr. Ong was a man of foresight and inspiration. He held and will hold an immortal position in the history of Taiwan
independence movement.
At Meiji University he became a full-time instructor and latter excelled himself to the posts of associate professor and finally full professor. He was in fact one of the first foreign
professors at a time when Japanese universities were still reluctant to employ foreign professors. He taught Chinese Language and Chinese Studies successively at Tokyo University, Saitama
University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo University of Education, and Tokyo Metropolitan University. He was especially excited when invited to teach Taiwanese Language courses at
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Tokyo Metropolitan University. He taught many students over altogether 27 years of his teaching career. As he aged he developed a heart complication but
kept on working strenuously.
His love for his compatriots revealed itself in the issue of compensations for Japanese servicemen of Taiwanese ancestry and their dependents. Those people who had served, voluntarily or
involuntarily, in the Japanese armed forces during World War II were living under the rule of the Chiang Kai-shek regime after the war. They were living in utter poverty and hardship in Taiwan,
with no compensation whatsoever by the Japanese government.
In 1975, Dr. Ong organized the “Association for Compensation of Japanese Servicemen of Taiwanese Ancestry” and directed activities for holding indoor meetings, street rallies etc., and filed
law suits against the Japanese government at the Tokyo District Court and subsequently the High Court, and eventually the Supreme Court. That legal process took a decade, during which he fell
ill. His selfless and tireless efforts rang the bell in the hearts of Japanese politicians and, in 1986, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to compensate every serviceman, dead or severely
wounded, two million Japanese Yen. Though the amount itself was much smaller than Japanese servicemen’s annuities, his efforts did pay off in compelling the Japanese government treasury to
appropriate 600 billion in a special budget. The entire process of this campaign was duly recorded and compiled by a group of Japanese volunteers into a book. The Collection of Works of Dr. Ong
Iok-tek does not include the book and, as it was not written solely by Dr. Ong. He had a number of articles to his credit in this nearly 1,000-page document, which he had later published.
During his lifetime Dr. Ong’s publish a wide variety of works including academic articles, political commentaries, literature reviews, plays, and book reviews. His “Study on the Phonetics of
the Ming Language” is among the best in its field. After his death, his teachers, students, relatives, and friends intended to publish this doctoral thesis. However, as they discovered many
symbols that could not be proofread, they concluded to have include a copy of the original manuscript in the Collection of Works.
I studied with Dr. Ong at Tainan First High School. Later in the independence movement I served as the chairman of the Japanese Chapter of the Taiwan Independence Alliance. I vividly recall
him then as a man of modesty and magnanimity: Senior as he was to me as my teacher, he was modest enough and magnanimous enough to seek instructions from me.
Ng Chiau-tong (黄昭堂)
Professor Emeritus, Showa University, Japan
