The Incident of the Petition Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament
|In 1923, a group of people including Chiang Wei-shui, Tsai Pei-huo, and Lin Cheng-lu applied to found the
League for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament, based on the Public Order and Police Act that was put into practice in January that year. The group immediately received an order from Taiwan Governor-General Den Kenjirō, forbidding them to form associations on the grounds of “maintaining peace and order.” The group’s leading figures shifted their aim and applied to establish a group with the same name at the police in Tokyo, Japan. Their application was granted, and prosecutor Miyoshi Kazuya prosecuted 18 Taiwanese political dissidents, including Chiang Wei-shui, on the grounds that they disobeyed the previous order that forbade them from forming associations. However, on August 18, 1924, a collegial panel of three Japanese judges at the Taiwan Taipei District Court announced that all individuals that were involved in this political incident that caused uproar across the island as not guilty. After the ruling, the chief judge Hotta Masaru made a statement to the public: These people abused the different regulations of different regions and took advantage of the varying opinions between the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General and Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to escape the judgment of the law. Therefore, according to the law, there was no choice but to acquit the accused. The verdict of the first instance gave the Taiwanese people further understanding and hope toward judicial independence. Although the individuals were found guilty at the final verdict by the Supreme Court Department of Appeals , the maximum sentence was merely four months of imprisonment as the “cost of resistance.” This encouraged the people of Taiwan to devote themselves to anti-colonial political movements. (Wu Chun-ying)
Excerpt of court verdict from the preliminary trial of the Incident of the Petition Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament, 1924. Collection of National Archives Administration, National Development Council
Photo commemorating the release of those imprisoned for their participation in the Petition Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament, 1924. Courtesy of Liok-Jian-Ku Archives
