Editing History of Taiwan (section)

===Japanese colonists===
Japanese commoners started arriving in Taiwan in April 1896.{{sfn|Tai|2014|p=90}} Japanese migrants were encouraged to move to Taiwan but few did during the colony's early years. Concern that Japanese children born in Taiwan would not be able to understand Japan resulted in primary schools conducting trips to Japan in the 1910s. Japanese police officers were encouraged to learn the [[Southern Min|Minnan]] and [[Hakka language|Hakka]] languages. Police officers who passed language examinations received allowances and promotions.{{sfn|Matsuda|2019|p=103–104}} By the late 1930s, Japanese people made up about 5.4 percent of Taiwan's population but owned a disproportionate amount of high quality land (20–25 percent of cultivated land) as well as the majority of large land holdings. The government assisted them in acquiring land and coerced Chinese land owners to sell. Japanese sugar companies owned 8.2 percent of the arable land.{{sfn|Ye|2019|p=201}}

There were almost 350,000 Japanese civilians living in Taiwan by the end of [[World War II]].{{sfn|Dawley|2015|p=115–117}} Offspring of intermarriage were considered Japanese if their Taiwanese mother chose Japanese citizenship or if their Taiwanese father did not apply for ROC citizenship.{{sfn|Dawley|2015|p=122}} As many as half the Japanese who left Taiwan after 1945 were born in Taiwan.{{sfn|Dawley|2015|p=115–117}} The Taiwanese seized or attempted to occupy property they believed were unfairly obtained in previous decades.{{sfn|Dawley|2015|p=118}} Japanese assets were collected and the ROC government retained most of it for their use.{{sfn|Dawley|2015|p=129}} [[Chen Yi (Kuomintang)|Chen Yi]], who was in charge of Taiwan, removed Japanese bureaucrats and police officers from their posts. A survey found that 180,000 Japanese civilians wished to leave for Japan while 140,000 wished to stay.{{sfn|Dawley|2015|p=119}} From February to May, the vast majority of Japanese left Taiwan for Japan.{{sfn|Dawley|2015|p=120–122}}