In 1940, when Chen was in the fifth year of high school, the Japanese colonial authorities embarked on a campaign to make its Taiwanese subjects more "Japanese" and began to force them to use Japanese names.
1940 年陳千武就讀台中一中 5 年級，正值二次大戰情勢緊繃，日本政府在台推行「皇民化運動」，強迫台灣人改用日本式姓名。