The KMT government had taken Taiwan from the Japanese and instituted policies designed to eradicate the "poison" of Japanese culture. Writing in Japanese was banned and Japanese books were burned. When in 1953 the government mandated Mandarin-language education, a generation of Taiwanese lost their language.
國府來台後為了「排除日本文化毒素」，嚴禁所有日文創作，燒毀日文書籍，並自 1953 年起實施「國語教育」，台灣人頓時成了「失聲」的一代。