漁人碼頭的戰爭 - The Battle of Fisherman's Wharf

Beethoven's Symphony No 9 in D-minor

2012-01-26T18:23:00.007+08:00

EyeDoc's note: This is a supplement to Tsunami hit northeast Japan, originally posted here.

It is a well-known story: When his 9th (the Choral) Symphony premiered on May 7, 1824, in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, the audience went wild. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) by then, however, was totally deaf. Contralto soloist, Karoline Unger, had to help turn him around to face the cheering crowd. There were 5 ovations all together, the ultimate respect for a common man (the police stopped further ovations in deference to the royalties who customarily were accorded three). It must have been quite a moving sight.

Beethoven indeed had put all his heart and soul into this symphony. In fact, despite the common belief that the vocal part of the 4th movement, Ode to Joy, was a poem borrowed from Frederich Schiller (1759-1805), Beethoven himself actually wrote portions of it. For example, at the very beginning of the vocal part, i.e., the baritone solo starting on bar 216:

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!

Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,

und freudenvollere.

Freude! Freude!

This symphony is of course remembered forever for its 4th movement. However, IMHO, the 3rd movement beginning with Adagio molto e cantabile is positively celestial that deserves even more attention.

Something about Beethoven's eyes? Ah, yes, we are just coming around to that.

The etiology of Beethoven's deafness has never been clear. Several possibilities have been put forth including otosclerosis, syphilis, noise trauma, Paget’s disease, sarcoidosis, and otitis media. None of them was conclusive, however.

It is known that Beethoven suffered from digestive diseases plus rheumatism, various skin abscesses and recurrent infections, ophthalmia, jaundice, and anemia. Ophthalmia? An old term for inflammation of the membranes/coats of the eye, i.e., iritis/uveitis. This, plus Beethoven's own admission of "constant belly aches, diarrhea and bloody stools" suggests that he might have a bad case of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease - both of which are associated episodically with deafness.

So the best guess is then: Beethoven's deafness was an immunopathic manifestation of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). And iritis/uveitis no doubt flared up from time to time. Unfortunately, after the autopsy, the coroner's report concentrated on the liver and the abdominal fluid, with nothing on the intestines. So we'll never know for sure.

There is a lesson here, though: Patients with IBD need to have their eyes (especially the retina) and ears (at least the hearing) examined regularly - particularly for musicians and composers.

The entire symphony is here:

龍年新年好

2012-01-23T05:34:00.005+08:00

恭喜發財, 紅包拿來

[A day of children raking in red-envelop money]

[And the New England Patriots won! Next stop: Super Bowl]

Tamsui Peace Park (TPP) - update 2

2012-01-22T13:58:00.007+08:00

[Praying Hands at TPP - for details of the inscription, see below]

[Contributed by Mr Sam Wu - click to enlarge]

Ft San Domingo - Part 3

2012-01-17T05:25:00.002+08:00

This is an early letter from the British Far Eastern Department, dated Jan 18, 1980, detailing the history and the possible transaction for Ft San Domingo and the Consulate building.

Intriguingly, the lost documents, possibly records of the Foreigners' Cemetery in Tamsui, seem to have been found - despite the earlier denial, the AIT in fact had them all along. And it was up to the Political Officer in Hongkong to decide whether they were to be shipped to HK or destroyed. This letter, dated May 25, 1983, marks the end of the Ft San Domingo paper trail. Let's hope the PO in HK had the presence of mind and saved a bit of the history for all to see.

Prophetically, both Ft San Domingo and the Consulate building are now a tourist's attraction.

Ft San Domingo - Part 2

2012-01-13T04:24:00.002+08:00

[Above: the British Consulate building in Tamsui/Danshui]

The handover of Ft San Domingo and the British Consulate building to Taiwan authorities occurred on June 30, 1980. In this letter sent to its Hongkong office [cc'd to PSA - Property Services Agency] on Nov 10, 1980, the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) was concerned about a few loose ends: (1) one set of keys still in the possession of the AIT (AIT had acted as the agent for British affairs since 1972); (2) the compensation for the remaining consulate staff, i.e., two watchmen and one caretaker; and most importantly, (3) the whereabouts of records of the Foreigners' Cemetery in Tamsui as well as some old Victorian files. The AIT, however, indicated that they had only kept admin records relative to the staff payment.

For those of us who have been looking for Lt Fontaine's head, these records would have provided crucial information. This paper trail appears to have run cold at this point; although a 1983 correspondence seems to suggest otherwise [to be posted in Part 3].

To enlarge the above: (1) in Firefox, click the images to open another window, right click to open menu and select "View image", click on image again to magnify; alternatively, click outside the left/right margin of the images and click again to enlarge; (2) in Chrome, same as in FF except when right click to open menu, select "Open image in new tab", then click to enlarge; and (3) IE? You'll need to download the images and view them with a graphics program, e.g., Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

Ft San Domingo - Part 1

2012-01-10T20:12:00.015+08:00

Knowledgeable tourists visiting Danshui (now reverted to its historical name "Tamsui") often come to the old 紅毛城 to marvel at the actual presence of the Brits in the relatively recent past. The Fort flew the Union Jack from 1867 onward until 1980 when the lease was terminated - eight years after the UK withdrew its consulate from Taiwan.

The handover of the British Consulate building and the adjacent Ft San Domingo to the Rep of China, however, was not without (bureaucratic) dramas. Here is a correspondence from the UK Far Eastern Department on the subject of Tamsui Consulate, dated April 1 and received on May 15, 1980, apparently by its officers in Hongkong, in which the lingering issue of disposing of the property was discussed:

To enlarge the above documents: (1) in Firefox, click the images to open another window, right click to open menu and select "View image", click on image again to magnify; (2) in Chrome, same as in FF except when right click to open menu, select "Open image in new tab", then click to enlarge; and (3) IE? You are on your own.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T22:21:00.002+08:00

Fresh from Taipei, celebrating the first day of 2012
[contributed by Mr Sam Wu].

Tsunami津波 hit northeast Japan - Part 3

2011-12-27T17:21:00.007+08:00

In memory of the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and in support of the re-construction, a concert featuring Beethoven's Symphony No 9 was conducted on Dec 16, in Ohunato City Cultural Hall. Ohunato, literally the "big shipping wharf", was one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami.

The concert was organized by Dr Takasaka Tomonori, Professor Emeritus at Tohoku University and President/Vice Chancellor of Tohoku Bunka Gakuyen University, both in Sendai. He also performed as a cellist in the orchestra.

It was an unforgettable experience for members of the Tohoku Univeristy Symphony Orchestra and the University Choir as well as the participating vocalists from Ohunato and Sendai. The symphony was conducted by Shinozaki Yasuo and the soloists were Umemura Noriko (soprano), Takahashi Mami (mezzo-soprano), Kato Hayato (baritone), Igarashi Osamu (tenor 12/16), and Matsuo Hideki (tenor 12/17).

Many in the audience were moved to tears.

The original announcement issued by Tohoku Bunka Gakuyen University is shown below:

復興支援活動　大船渡第九コンサート

本学園では、東日本大震災からの復興と新生への活動として文化芸術を通した取り組みを進めています。そして、12月に大船渡市民文化会館「リアスホール」にて、市教育委員会の後援を得て、第九の合唱コンサートを開催いたします。このコンサートにはロンドン在住の世界的指揮者篠崎靖男氏がボランティアとして参加し、また東北大学の交響楽団と混声合唱団、大船渡市と仙台市の有志の方々の協力を得て、本学園大学と専門学校の学生たちが、未来につなぐ歌声を届けます。
入場無料です。ぜひ、ご家族ご友人をお誘いあわせ、お気軽にご来場いただきますようご案内申し上げます。

大船渡　第九コンサート

主　　催　学校法人　東北文化学園大学
後　　援　大船渡市教育委員会

開催日時　12月16日（金）　16：00～
場　　所　リアスホール（大船渡市民文化会館）

入場無料

指　　揮　篠﨑靖男　東北大学交響楽団
合　　唱　東北文化学園混声合唱団　東北大学混声合唱団有志　大船渡市民有志　仙台市民有志
ソリスト　梅村憲子（ソプラノ）高橋真美（メゾソプラノ）加藤隼人（バリトン）　
　　　　　五十嵐修（テノール　16日出演）松尾英章（テノール　17日出演）

帰還報告コンサート
開催日時　12月17日（土）　16：00～
場　　所　東北文化学園キャンパス

Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T10:45:00.003+08:00

Happy Holidays and a prosperous 2012 to all

Taiwan Beer

2011-12-20T17:22:00.013+08:00

This is a common sight in Taiwan: emptied bottles of 台灣啤酒Taiwan Beer. No get-togethers, large or small, are complete without the copious imbibition of this venerable beverage, known forever to the locals as the Bīru [ビール - Japanese for beer] or 麥仔酒 [Ve-a-ju].

The predecessor of 台灣啤酒 is actually the Takasago Beer高砂麥酒:

Malt liquor or beer is indigent to Europe; although it was imported into Japan from America in ca 1870. During the late 19th century (the start of the Meiji period) brewers from Germany arrived, and the oldest Japanese beer brewery company麒麟麥酒株式會社[Kirin Bīru Kabushiki-gaisha] started production in 1907. Kirin, together with Asahi, Suntory, and Sapporo, have dominated Japanese beer market even now.

The consumption of imported beer in Taiwan [from Japan] had increased exponentially during this era, from a mere 893 hectoliter in 1897 to 270,000 hectoliter in 1907. By 1919, it reached 870,000 hectoliter. This rate of growth was unprecedented among all alcoholic beverages. And the reasons were the arrival of beer-drinking Japanese immigrants, the acceptance of beer in Taiwanese culture, plus the WW1 wartime prosperity that had also swept over Taiwan.

In Jan 1919, the chairman of 芳釀株式會社 [incorporated in 1910, started producing sake in 1913 on the same site as the now-defunct 台北酒廠], 安倍幸之助Abe Konosuke founded 高砂麥酒株式會社Takasago Bīru Kabushiki-gaisha with a capital of 2 million yen. The factory was located in 內上埤頭 in Taipei （now the site of JianGuo Brewery建國啤酒場）. All equipment was shipped from Hawaii and raw materials from overseas sources. This was also at the beginning of the Great Prohibition in the US, a decline in worldwide beer supply was anticipated.

Initially, the company operated at a loss, accumulating a debt of well over 4 million yen. The marketing strategy was therefore shifted from targeting overseas sales to inland Taiwan consumption. Not unlike the Budweiser Clydesdales, the company sent horse-drawn wagons on advertising tours all over the island. In addition, the chief technician from Kirin Bīru Kabushiki-gaisha was invited to Taiwan to improve the quality of the product. And the sales skyrocketed.

In 1923, Takasago Beer was brewed from malt and hops from Czechoslovakia and Germany. When the Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937, the company bought wheat from Japan and Manchuria and hops from Poland and Germany. In late 1937, the sources of hops switched to Japan and Korea.

In 1945, after the Chinese takeover of Taiwan, Takasago Beer was re-named Taiwan Beer and stayed so ever since. In 1960, under the direction of German consultants, Taiwan's special premier rice 蓬萊米 was added into the mix [note: the definition of beer is brews that contain 67% malt (thus allowing up to 33% adjuncts including rice, corn, sorghum, potato, starch, and sugar)]. This gives the unique flavor of present-day Taiwan Beer. Needless to say, tastes may change, yet it is still the most enjoyable to those who reached drinking age and sampled Taiwan Beer liberally in the 1960s.

Lost Colony - a new book by Tonio Andrade

2011-12-15T16:29:00.002+08:00

Source: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9525.html

Tonio Andrade is associate professor of history at Emory University. He is the author of How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century.

Easily the best biography of Koxinga in the English language

A Taiwanese internee in Australia

2011-12-14T01:38:00.000+08:00

[Dutch East Indies, later Indonesia]

This is a "Report on Internee/POW" of a Taiwanese internee named Oei Eng-Bok, dated 17/2/1942.

Mr Oei was an "Enemy Alien" - the reason for his incarceration.

His DOB was 28/12/1896; Place of Birth: Tairanshu, Taiwan; Occupation: Farmer; Address: Sekar Ngantang Malang [East] Java where he was also captured [on 8/12/1941]; he was imprisoned on 27/1/1942 upon arrival in Australia on board of H.S. Cremer.

Mr Oei was umarried with both parents deceased. He had a brother named Koh(許) Sei Wah back home in Tairanshu tohaki-gun (東伯郡?) santo No 417 in Taiwan. He had black hair, brown eyes, was 5 ft 8 in tall weighing 130 lbs, and identified by a mole on his right eyelid.

The date of his "capture" was Dec 8, 1941 - the very same day when the Netherlands declared war on Japan.

Mr Oei signed his name in Kanji as 黃遠木 and was apparently from Tainan County, the then 台南州.

His fate remains unknown.

The Yoizuki Hell-ship Incident - Part 4

2011-12-09T02:39:00.014+08:00

How did the Taiwanese end up in SE Asia with some later sent to concentration camps in Australia and finally repatriated to Taiwan?

This odyssey goes back to 1936 when 台灣拓殖株式會社Taiwan Takushoku Co was created. In fact, the origin of this organization can be traced back to 三五會社SanGo Co founded in 1902.

The 下関条約Shimonoseki Treaty agreed upon by both China and Japan after the first Sino-Japanese war actually stipulated that Hokkien would not be allowed to fall into the hands of foreign powers, that is, except Japan. With this promise from the Qing Court, the Japanese Colonial Gov't in Taiwan began planning for financial/banking operations in this region - in preparation for the SE Asia expansion of the Japan empire.

However, because of the prevailing anti-Japanese sentiment at that time, official operations would meet with popular resistance. A different approach, using the Chinese as figureheads of registered corporations, was therefore adopted. Coincidentally, 林朝棟 who fought in the Sino-French war in Taiwan had received, in part as a reward, the exclusive rights to manufacture camphor in Hokkien but was short on funds. Lin subsequently applied for a loan from the Bank of Taiwan. The Colonial Gov't (during the reign of Governor General 後藤新平), after a number of assessments, authorized 愛久澤直哉 in 1902 to form a joint Chinese-Japanese corporation, the 三五公司, to represent the Japanese interest. The company employed predominantly Taiwanese and Hokkienese and was well-funded by the Colonial Gov't. This was a sizable corporation with activities extending into education, field investigation and surveys, camphor manufacturing, and railroad and canal building. Many of these business activities, especially railroad building was controversial; most eventually proved unprofitable and were closed down. 愛久澤直哉, however, continued on, into the shipping business. Between 1912-24, the company operated shipping routes sailing between Hokkien and SE Asia and also invested heavily in rubber plantations in Singapore. 三五公司 in fact was the prototype for another created later in 1936, the 台灣拓殖株式會社Taiwan Takushoku Co.

Of the three major "national policy" corporations, the Bank of Taiwan, the Taiwan Electric Co, and the Taiwan Takushoko Co, only the first two survived after the Pacific War. The Takushoko Co was ordered to disband by the Allied Forces because of its role as the supplier of the Imperial Japanese military. Between 1936-45, it followed the progress of Japanese military and spawned 1000+ branches, operating from India to the Philippines, and from Hong Kong to Java. The company, in addition to running public utilities in occupied southern China, had also engaged in mining in Indo-China, cotton growing in Thailand, and farm animal raising in Dutch East Indies - among numerous other enterprises. These overseas activities provided the Taiwanese with employment opportunities. In the end, in 1946, its vast land holding and properties back in Taiwan were taken over by 台湾土地銀行the Land Bank of Taiwan [the headquarters building shown on upper left] and the company faded into history. Now, only a few know about the existence of this quasi-official organization.

The Taiwanese internees in Australia, repatriated on board of Hell-ship Yoizuki, were members of this highly skilled group.

Sources in Chinese provided by Fung-yin:
http://pylin.kaishao.idv.tw/?p=754
http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~hi/Forum/subjectdisplay.php?fid=9&tid=62

Tamsui Peace Park (TPP) - update 1

2011-12-07T21:54:00.013+08:00

Tamsui Peace Park and the Itteki House are both located in the Hobé Gun Fort and Golf Course area off Chung Cheng Road in 油車口 [for NT$15, you can take Bus No 26 from the MRT Station and get off at the Golf Course stop]. A road sign at the entry boulevard points to the two adjacent sites:

[Top: Another sign further up the boulevard and bottom: The Peace Park]

[Bottom, to the right of the walkway, a stone sculpture of praying hands commemorating the Sino-French war dead]

[Top and bottom: The site for future TPP memorials]

[Bottom: The Itteki Memorial House]

[Within the House, top: the entire collection of 水上勉 and bottom: that of 陳舜臣]

Looking from the TPP at Guan-ying Mountain

木下靜涯 Kinoshita Seigai - Part 2

2011-12-02T05:36:00.012+08:00

In preserving Danshui's cultural heritage including that from the Japanese colonial era, Tamsui District has created a garden dedicated to the memory of master painter Kinoshita Seigai (located across the street from the sculpture of Dr George Leslie Mackay on Chung Cheng Road):

[Above: the famed tree in front of his house and bottom: Kinoshita's house where he resided for 20 some years before repatriation to Japan in 1946]

[Above and below: contemporary artists from both Japan and Taiwan]

[Above and below: memorial garden. The inscription on the stone is his last words, "好日好日又好日Day after day, another good day"]

Please come and visit

The Yoizuki Hell-ship Incident - Part 3

2011-11-21T19:51:00.006+08:00

[Source: NAA - National Archives of Australia, click to enlarge]

Our friend in Australia Sophie pointed us to documents long buried within the NAA. Here is one example, the record of one Taiwanese baby interned in Tatura, Victoria:

地區 (District): Dutch East Indies荷屬東印度 [按note: when the Pacific War broke out, Japanese and Taiwanese residents of DEI were shipped to Australia and interne there太平洋戰爭爆發時,此地一部份日本人及臺灣人被送往澳洲集中營拘禁]

姓名 (Name): SAI Ho Tjioe [原名不詳 Chinese name unknown]

生日 (DOB): 22/7/1942
被俘地 (Place of capture): Tatura, Victoria [按: 位於維多利亞省北部]
出生地 (Place of birth): Tatura
宗教 (Religion): 儒教 (Confucist)

國籍 (Nationality): 原登記為originally "Aust. Born Jap Parents", 刪改為changed to "Formosan"
生母 (Mother): SAI Loei Sian Twe [原名不詳]
生母住址 (Mother's address): Tatura 集中營第四營 (Tatura Camp No 4)

報告 (Report):
特徴 (Characteristics): 黑髪棕眼 [性別不詳] (Black hair brown eyes)
17/8/1942 入營 (Date interned)
6/3/1946 自雪梨港乘宵月艦遣回臺灣 (Repatriated on Yoizuki from Sydney Harbor to Formosa)

Internee SAI Ho Tjioe, the not-even-4-year-old Yoizuki hell-ship passenger, should be 69 years old by now.

Taiwanese POWs in Australia

2011-11-19T05:18:00.020+08:00

On Aug 23, 2011, the Cowra Shire Council reported the following:

Taiwanese gather in Cowra to ring Bell of Peace
(source: here):

Over 80 Taiwanese guests and officials travelled to Cowra from Sydney today to take part in a special World Peace Bell Ceremony.

As part of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Centennial Peace Day celebrations, Cowra’s World Peace Bell and Peace Bells around the world were rung in conjunction with the unveiling of the ‘Bell of Peace’ on the island of Kinmen in Taiwan.

In addressing the group, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Ms Frances Chung-Feng Lee, explained that Taiwan has designated 23 August as the Republic of China (Taiwan) Centennial Peace Day in commemoration of the anniversary of the 823 Artillery Bombardment, in which China fired up to 500,000 shells at the island of Kinmen. The two-meter high peace bell, cast out of copper and incorporating artillery shells used in the 1958 battle, is inscribed with the word "peace" in more than 100 languages.

Cowra has the honour of having Australia’s World Peace Bell, an honour that is usually reserved for capital cities. There are currently 21 World Peace Bells and coins to manufacture the bells have been donated by 103 United Nations member countries.

Cowra’s World Peace Bell was presented in 1992 in recognition of the peace and friendships made between the people of Cowra and Japan following the tragic Japanese breakout from Cowra's World War 2 prison camp on 5 August, 1944.

The first World Peace Bell was created by Chiyoji Nakagawa, former Mayor of Uwajima in Shikoku, Japan, during the aftermath of World War 2 and presented as a token of peace to the United Nations. Working on his own, Mr Nakagawa canvassed 65 member countries of the United Nations asking for donations of coins to cast a bell.

In 1982 a World Peace Bell Association was formed with co-operation from ambassadors representing 128 nations. The Association was charged with promoting a world free from the evils of nuclear war, and presenting replica World Peace Bells to the nations of the world. As was the case with the original, replicas are made from the donated coins of United Nations member countries.

Oddly, there was no mention of Taiwanese POWs detained between 1942-1946 within Cowra POW camps by any of the participants. The Taiwanese delegates apparently did not pay any attention let alone respects to their own people drafted to fight in the Pacific War for the Japanese Empire, instead, they commemorated the gun battles in Kinmen that occurred between ROC and PRC forces in 1985, irrelevant to the celebratory theme of World Peace.

In contrast, the breakout of Japanese POWs on Aug 5, 1944 has never been forgotten even with a memorial honoring the Japanese dead [see, for example, here]. To be fair, history has provided preciously little about the Taiwanese POWs if at all. Records only show, for instance, that there were 4 districts within the Cowra camp, Districts A through D. A and C housed Italian POWs captured in N Africa; B, Japanese POWs with low ranks; and D, Taiwanese and Korean POWs, together with high-ranking Japanese officers. It was the plan to relocate about 1,000 Japanese low ranking POWs to Hay, NSW, 400 km to the west, to separate them from their officers that had precipitated the breakout. Since no Taiwanese were reported either having been killed or injured, they probably did not take part in the riot; although the number of them, possibly in the hundreds, remains unknown to the people of Taiwan to this day.

Presumably, during and immediately after the Pacific War, 6,000 Taiwanese POWs were incarcerated in Australia. Some were previous prison sentries guarding British and Australian POWs in Borneo. Around 200 were tried and convicted as war criminals in 1945-6 and served time. In the 1950s, 50 with long sentences were sent back to Japan to serve out their time. A few of these sentries imprisoned in Rabaul did return to Taiwan and their stories told as part of the 2009 best-seller by 龍應台Lung Ying-Tai, the "大江大海一九四九Big River Big Sea—Untold Stories of 1949". Nothing is known as far as the fate of those stranded in Australia, however.

The Yoizuki Hell-ship Incident - Part 2

2011-11-16T06:52:00.007+08:00

[Above: Taiwanese families, the "security risks" to Australia]

So who and how many were these Taiwanese internees?

From Rabaul, the Canberra Times reported in the March 15, 1946 edition that "Transfer of 350 Formosan and Korean internees from the Yoizuki to the Jap hospital ship, Hikawa Maru, was completed this morning..."

The origin of the Taiwanese is still unknown, it now appears that they were the surveyors and traders who went with the Japanese migrants to Dutch East Indies in the 1930s. When the war broke out, some of them were somehow selected and sent to Australia camps (by Aug 1945, there were still 18,138 Taiwanese remaining in Dutch Indies). It also turns out that, in the style of the American internment of citizens of Japanese descent, Australia had also imprisoned some 1,000 of its own residents/citizens of the Japanese heritage (including 300 divers and their families who worked in the pearling industry in Broome since the late 19th century). There were 28 prison camps in Australia to also intern (1) POWs; (2) enemy aliens; and (3) in addition to the Japanese described above, German and Italian residents of Australia. The Taiwanese, plus other Japanese civilians relocated from Java and New Caledonia were encamped in Camp No 4, together with German and Austrian POWs, all confined to the 7 concentration camps in Tatura, 17 miles southeast of Sheppartan in northern Victoria.

According to contemporary reports, on March 6, 1946, the Pyrmont Wharf in Sydney Harbor was crowded with 565 Japanese POWs and 400 "Japanese" civilians; among the latter were 100 and 112 Taiwanese women and children, respectively, plus 40 adult men. The number of the Koreans - mentioned in the Canberra Times article - remains unclear. In any case, the Taiwanese internees arrived at 7AM after an overnight train ride from Victoria.

For some inexplicable reason, the men were to be separated from their families. With this, all hell broke loose - families struggled to stay together and women and children wept and cried openly. One already boarded man jumped from the ship in an attempt to re-join his family on the dock and had to be rescued from the sea. The boarding process was temporarily halted but was later resumed on order of an unknown higher authority and further enforced by the Australian military police. In all, 1,005 were packed into the Yoizuki. This chaotic heart-breaking scene and the apparent overcrowding were promptly reported by the press - with comparisons to the infamous hell-ships on which many Australian POWs had suffered and died.

Scenes of Taiwanese families at Pyrmont Wharf, Sydney Harbor

[Above: The 2,700-ton Yoizuki arriving in Sydney Harbor]

[Above: a Taiwanese being forced to board the Yoizuki]

[Above: This young man refused to get on the ship while others embarked under the watchful eyes of the Australian MPs (bottom)]

[Above: Girls weeping and bottom: children receiving milk]

[Above and below: Men, women and children congregating at the Wharf]

Order from Gen MacArthur stipulated that only 948 should be allowed on board and the Australian investigating commission later pointed out that it should have been 800. In all, however, 1,005 went on the ship designed to accommodate 400.

A postscript: The hospital ship Hikawa Maru氷川丸 that the Taiwanese boarded in Rabaul was a converted luxury ocean liner of 11,621 tons. In 1941, it ferried Jewish refugees from Japan to Canada. Immediately after the war, it served as a repatriation ship, and later continued to carry cargo and passengers sailing between Japan and the US until 1960. In 1961, it was re-fitted into a floating museum in Yokohama which was closed in 2006 but re-opened to the public in 2008:

The Yoizuki Hell-ship Incident - Part 1

2011-11-13T19:55:00.006+08:00

Quoted below are several 1946 articles in The Canberra Times that chronicled the 宵月Yoizuki Hell-ship Incident, an episode that involved the repatriation of Taiwanese families of about 350 individuals, then interned in Australia together with other POWs.

Apparently the Australian military wanted to cram more than 1,000 individuals onto the 2,700-ton Japanese destroyer Yoizuki when the Taiwanese objected. All Taiwanese by then had become nationals of the Republic of China; nonetheless, the ones in Australia were all treated as Japanese subjects to be kicked out of Australia. The internees and the POWs were promised that if they were to sail from Sydney to Rabaul on Yoizuki, they would be allowed to re-board a larger hospital ship before sailing off again.

In no position to refuse, 1,005 repatriates were forced to embark and suffered through the most deplorable living conditions during the 2,000-mile voyage. The Australian military officials obviously had intended to give the "Japs" the deadly hell-ship treatment as a payback - in fact, one soldier's mother wrote to the newspaper:
"Has "Ex-TX2162" forgotten the way mothers' sons were crowded in prison hell ships during the war, with no room to move or decent food to eat, that he cries out about a little overcrowding on the Yoizuki? My son lost his life through hunger and cruelty. I, for one. can't forget. (Signed) LONELY MOTHER".

To the credit of the Australian press which generated enough public outcry that prompted the civilian gov't to investigate; unfortunately, in the typical time-honored bureaucratic fashion, the blame was put squarely on the repatriating victims for the over-crowding and the unsanitary conditions on board the Yoizuki. The investigating mission even declared that all evacuees appeared happy and healthy with no sicknesses resulting from being on board the destroyer. Case closed.

The Taiwanese eventually arrived home; however, to this day, there has been practically no report on this Yoizuki Hell-ship incident. The evacuees were most likely too overjoyed to have finally come home to voice/file any complaints. Then again, no one in authority in Taiwan or the Central Gov't in Nanjing would have cared; after all, the "Japs" were the enemy and by association, the Taiwanese as well. Less than one year later, the 228 Incident took place which was quickly followed by the reign of the White Terror. And the Yoizuki Hell-ship Incident disappeared from the collective memory.

To preserve a little bit of the history, the Australian reports are quoted in toto and posted here:

MR. A. FRASER SAYS YOIZUKI OUTCRY WAS JUSTIFIED
The Canberra Times Friday 15 March 1946

The removal of women and children from the Yoizuki and the reduction of the total number of passengers could mean only one thing that the authorities had decided that the ship was overcrowded. This statement was made in a broadcast from Canberra last night by Mr. Alan, Fraser, Labour member for Eden Monaro.

Some lobby speculation attaches to the position of Mr. Fraser, Who, is claimed to have received the displeasure of some of his party colleagues for statements on the Yoizuki incident.

Some Labour members have personally supported Mr. Fraser's stand in the lobbies, claiming that any Labour member is entitled to express his own opinions so long as they are not a contradiction of Labour policy. In his broadcast last night, Mr. Fraser said he believed the original grounds of protest on the Yoizuki incident were justified, but the important point was how this has come about. It would not have come about had there not been public interest and great publicity.

In the debate, Mr. Chifley had quoted with approval General MacArthur's statement that the loading of the Yoizuki was not a matter of Government policy but of administrative action by officials. Mr. Chifley also stated that he knew nothing of the Yoizuki charges until three hours after she had sailed.

"It is astonishing to me," said Mr. Fraser, "that those who allege newspaper falsehood and inaccuracy in this matter, nevertheless have relied solely on newspaper reports to base their criticism of me. Not one has sufficiently doubted the accuracy of the newspapers as to ask me for a copy of what I said.

"While this has become a political issue now, it was not so last Thursday. I accept the reports then published as the honest work of men whom I know personally, men who are newspaper reporters not political correspondents, men who deal in facts not in opinions, and men whose political views are certainly not unfavourable to this Government.

"The war inevitably blunted belief in the value and dignity of individual human life. It is essential to re-sharpen that belief. No greater injury could be done to our democratic society at this stage than to let pass unregarded allegations of inhumanity.

"It is essential also to assert unmistakably the supremacy of civil government over military commands. My responsibility, as a member of the National Parliament, is not abolished because General Sturdee says he is satisfied. A great Labour leader, who has passed from us, impressed on me and other new members that an important part of our duty, as private members was to act as watchdogs for the people on executive action.

"Mr. A. G. Cameron shows failure to understand the duties of a member of Parliament when he says that I must either vote against the Government or repudiate my statement.

"I have a duty, which I will continue to emphasise as a private member, to criticise and, if necessary oppose, the executive action of the Government of which I am a policy supporter. But that is an entirely different thing from voting against such a Government to place in power Mr. Cameron and his colleagues whose policy would bring despair and misery not only to a few Formosans but to hundreds of thousands of Australian men, women and children."

REPORT FINDS OVERCROWDING AND FILTH ON YOIZUKI
The Canberra Times Thursday 21 March 1946

Loading Exceeded Directions by General MacArthur

The Japanese destroyer Yoizuki was overcrowded and in a filthy condition when it arrived at Rabaul from Sydney.

This was revealed in the Government investigating mission's report tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday by the Prime Minister (Mr. Chifley).

The report, made by Mr. Justice Simpson and Brigadier F. G. Galleghan, stated that the total on board was 1005, plus the crew.

The mission found that if additional family members of the internees and P.O.W.'s were to be embarked when the Yoizuki was at Sydney, an equivalent number of unattached males should have been taken off so that the number would not have exceeded 948 as laid down by General MacArthur.

There were no cases of sickness on the voyage from Sydney to Rabaul, except cases of sea-sickness. The mission received no complaints of any ill-treatment on the voyage, although they especially asked for complaints.

The report added, "Despite the orders from General MacArthur stipulating that 948 passengers embark, the actual number embarked was 1005. We are satisfied that this was brought about by a mistaken view of the military authorities governing the embarking, and was actuated by a humanitarian desire to keep families together and, in so doing, they had overloaded the ship by 57 persons."

It seems to us probable, too, that they were influenced by the fact that any other ship calling at Sydney would have had to include amongst a preponderant Japanese party some 57 Formosans and Koreans, with a grave possibility of trouble on board.

We consider that a mistake was made in this regard but we do not consider that it was a mistake that calls for any disciplinary action against the officers concerned.

The report added, "It is difficult to find words adequate to describe the filthy conditions existing on the Yoizuki. The lavatories did not appear to have been cleaned for some days and the galley was littered with scraps of food in varying stages of decomposition. The quarters of the family groups were clean and some effort had been made to obtain comfort.

"The surrendered personnel did not appear to have made any effort to maintain personal hygiene and the stench from their quarters was overpowering. These conditions were brought about, we feel confident, by the fact that the passengers refused to obey the orders of the ship's captain, and the officers and crew resigned themselves to the conditions.

In this regard, there was a marked distinction between the crew's quarters, which were clean and neat, and the passengers' accommodation, and the conditions were similar as regards space and lay-out."

The mission summed up its' findings as:

1.-The number 948 was agreed to by General MacArthur, such number to include women and children.

2.-The standard of accommodation was equivalent to the standard that the Japanese provided for their own personnel when transported by sea.

3.-The ship was overloaded to the extent of about 57 persons, such overloading was caused by a desire not to separate family groups or to leave in Australia a small number of Formosans.

4.-On this voyage the number should have been limited to 800 or the amount of baggage each person embarked with should have been restricted to hand baggage.

5.-A very considerable proportion, at least half, of the family groups would have chosen to go on with the ship rather than risk delay while awaiting another ship.

6.-There were no complaints of ill-treatment by the Japanese officers or crew and no necessity to put any armed guards on board for the protection for the Formosans and Koreans.

7.-The food was ample.

8.-Tile lavatory accommodation was satisfactory.

9.-The medical equipment and drugs were adequate.

10.-There were four doctors on board, including the Japanese doctor.

11.-Fresh water allowance was sufficient, but no more than sufficient.

12.-The filthy conditions of the ship were caused by the unwillingness of the passengers to collaborate with the crew in the cleaning of the vessel.

Members of the mission considered that a serious mistake had been made in allowing passengers to embark with very large quantities of luggage. They considered that as the ship had been designed to carry 948 passengers, each should have been accompanied only by the same amount of luggage as a soldier would carry. The amount of luggage permitted to be embarked was very great indeed, particularly that taken by family groups.

The report added that when family groups were disembarked at Rabaul, it took two landing barges to carry the luggage to the shore and nine three-ton trucks, packed to capacity, to carry the luggage from the shore to the camp site. In addition, each person carried by hand much personal luggage. It was because of the very large amount of luggage that had been permitted to be embarked that the mission came to the conclusion that not more than 800 should have been carried on this voyage. There was no place to stow surplus luggage on the vessel and the luggage, therefore, had to be stowed in passenger accommodation, resulting in reduced space being available for personnel.

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Menzies) moved that the report be printed and the debate adjourned.

NO SICKNESS ON JAPANESE DESTROYER
The Canberra Times Friday 15 March 1946

SYDNEY, Thursday.

The Red Cross representative at Rabaul states that none of the Yoizuki repatriates appeared to be the slightest bit affected by their voyage from Sydney.

None of the stretcher cases put aboard in Sydney was in a serious condition and the expectant mother had not yet given birth to a child

Although Justice Simpson's official report is not yet to hand, it is understood the investigators are satisfied that no deaths occurred on the voyage and that sickness had, in fact, decreased

A special plane bearing the committee of investigation, was forced back to Rabaul to-day because of engine trouble .

It is possible the aircraft will leave for Sydney either late tonight or early to morrow .

SENSATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Canberra Times Thursday 14 March 1946

RABAUL

Ship Sailed Brought Back To Pick Up Formosans

RABAUL, Wednesday.

A sensation developed today when it was ascertained that the Japanese hospital ship Hawata Maru [note: this should be Hikawa Maru - see also insert on top left], which had been dispatched to Rabaul to pick up the Formosan men, women and children repatriates who had been disembarked from the destroyer Yoizuki, had left without picking up the repatriates and could not be intercepted.

A naval patrol vessel was sent in pursuit and later brought the ship back

The repatriates were standing by motor transport which was to convey them to the hospital ship when it moved off at 1:20 pm.

The counter-orderlies to the captain of the hospital ship did not come from the army or navy.

The Yoizuki sailed last night for Japan after taking on 147 more male Formosans.

Before its departure, the Investigation Commission spent five hours aboard making a thorough investigation.

The repatriates taken from the destroyer were conveyed by army lorries to a compound and special food was provided by the Red Cross for the mothers and babies.

On the way to the camp the repatriates, saw Formosans and others working on roads, and waved and shouted greetings.

Apparently the only ones who were ill, were those who were hospital cases before they embarked on the ship in Sydney.

On the hospital ship there are five doctor's, three Japs and two Formosans.

A senior Red Cross representative at Rabaul (Mr A Scotford) said he was surprised at the general condition of the Formosans but he was not permitted to inspect the Yoizuki. The Formosans were in good health, happy and also in a clean state.

Guards were placed round the Formosans camp and special passes were necessary to enter it.

Mr Scotford said that one of the men who came off at Rabaul, told him the ship had travelled well and that passengers had a good voyage with only one patch of rough weather.

He added that the destroyer was scarcely built for comfort.

Mr Scotford was told there was no one seriously ill among the men, women and children taken off at Rabaul.

It is expected that Mr Justice Simpson and his colleagues will leave by special plane for Australia tomorrow.

It was stated today that the Hawatu [note: Hikawa] Maru may call at Truk in the Carolines, en route to Formosa.

Justice Simpson and his colleagues refused to make any comment. He said the report will be submitted to the Prime Minister on his return.

Pictures in London Paper

LONDON, Wednesday.

The Daily Mail used two and three-column pictures on its front page of passengers boarding the Jap destroyer in Sydney.

The pictures, which were received by air mail show, firstly a bewildered Formosan mother with a child in her arms and another on her back boarding the "hell-ship" secondly, two Australian military policeman forcing a Japanese prisoner aboard the ship; and, thirdly three Formosan girls weeping.

「波風」→「瀋陽」 The Prize of War

2011-11-10T05:39:00.042+08:00

After the Japanese surrender in Aug 1945, what's left of the IJN warships were handed over to 4 victor-nations: USA, USSR, UK, and the Republic of China. A number of them were actually re-commissioned. Thanks to Mr Hirokawa, a complete list, from his Tansui blog, of those served in the ROC Navy is shown here - the first brackets contain the original IJN and the second, the new ROC navy name of the ships - with parts in blue added by Eyedoc:

Destroyers［駆逐艦］:

「波風」→「瀋陽」 As the first example, the history of the transformation of 「波風」→「瀋陽」 is described below:

Destroyer 波風Namikaze [above: 1,234 tons] was built in 1922 at the Maizuru Naval Shipyard (舞鶴海軍工廠). Its duties involved principally the patrol of northern waters of Japan until Dec 1943 when Namikaze was reassigned to escort convoys to French Indochina but returned to the northern waters patrol duty in Mar 1944.

On Aug 21, 1944, Namikaze was torpedoed by USS Seal (SS-183) but survived. It was repaired and rebuilt into a carrier for 回天Kaiten (manned torpedoes - pocket submarines loaded with high explosives) and joined the Combined IJN Fleet. There was no report of the Kaitens' being deployed, however. It was decommissioned on Oct 5, 1945. And on Oct 3, 1947, the ship was turned over to the ROC as a prize of war. It was re-named 瀋陽Shenyang, originally based in Tsingtao, later moved to Taiwan to continue service until 1960, when it was finally scrapped.

「雪風」→「丹陽」 [雪風Yukikaze, below, built in 1940, nicknamed Lucky/Miracle ship because it had fought in 16 major battles in the Pacific War and yet suffered no damages. Detractors, however, pointed out that the ships that she escorted had all been sunk. Renamed 丹陽Danyang and served in the ROC Navy, it carried Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Sek from Shanghai to Taiwan in 1949. It later engaged in a sea battle with 2 PRC cruisers sinking one and damaging the other. It was decommissioned in 1965, dismantled in 1971 with the steering wheel and the rudder returned to Japan as museum pieces.]

「宵月」→「汾陽」 [宵月Yoizuki, below, was built in Jan 1945, too late to join in any battles. In Mar 1946, it arrived in Sydney, Australia to pick up 1,005 Japanese POWs. Among them were 350 Taiwanese internees who refused to crowd into such a tiny ship and demanded a larger one that befitted the new status of citizens of a victor-nation (i.e., the ROC). This was not accommodated and the Hell-ship sailed on to New Guinea where the Taiwanese re-boarded a larger hospital ship before returning home. The ship was handed over to the ROC in Aug 1947 and re-named 汾陽Fenyang. However, because of lack of manpower in restoring and operating the ship, it was sitting idle in Keelung Port and was eventually decommissioned in 1961. When it was scrapped in 1962-3 in Taiwan, veteran shipyard workers discovered pure copper (紫銅) tubing used in the high-pressure steam lines in the engine room and cursed openly in Japanese at wasting such a precious well-crafted young vessel.]

More destroyers:
「初梅」→「信陽」
「楓」→「衡陽」
「杉」→「恵陽」
「蔦」→「華陽」

Sea defense ships［海防艦］
「隠岐」→「長白」「対馬」→「臨安」「四阪」→「恵安」「屋代」→「正安」
「１４」→「済南」「４０」→「成安」「６７」→「営口」「８１」→「黄安」「８５」→「新安」
「104」→「泰安」「107」→「潮安」「118」→「長沙」「192」→「同安」
「194」→「威海」「198」→「吉安」「205」→「長安」｢215」→「遼海」

Transports［輸送艦］
「１６」→「武夷」
「172」→「廬山」

Mine layers and special layers［敷設艇及敷特］
「済州」→「永靖」
「黒島」→「？」

Mine sweepers and special sweepers［掃海艇及掃特］
「１４」→「掃雷２０１」
「１９」→「掃雷２０２」
「２２」→「掃雷２０３」

Anti-submariners［駆潜艇］
「９」→「？」
「４９」→「？」

Special duty ship［特務艦］[Some in this class were, e.g., ice-breakers]
「白崎」→「武陵」 [A food transport ship]

Interestingly, the handover of IJN warships to the ROC seemed to have been handled by the US, perhaps under the guise of 美援the American aid, or it would have contradicted the post-war lenience policy that the ROC would not seek/demand any war reparation from Japan. This policy [known as the benevolent "以德報怨" policy of Chiang Kai-Sek] and the peaceful repatriation of Japanese citizens from mainland China and elsewhere had earned enormous gratitude that was to be a major factor later in the 1950-60s, in an era of intense diplomatic games played by the KMT, the CCP, and the Japanese. In 1978, Japan PM Fukuda Takeo even attended President Chiang Kai-Sek's funeral much to the displeasure of the CCP.

Other sources indicate that these ships [those within Japanese territories] were divided among the 4 nations in lotteries conducted at the Allied HQ in Tokyo (the first of four was drawn on June 28, 1947), and the officers representing the ROC were Naval Commanders 馬德建 and 姚嶼. In addition, Japan had left behind 2,169 warships of various builds in China. Of which only 192 were deemed usable and more than 1,100 were scrapped.

The ROC in fact did not demand any war compensation in silver taels as was asked of China in the Qing era by foreign powers including Japan. This might have been the core piece of the lenience policy; although the Gov't apparently did participate in dividing up the war spoils and took over abandoned Japanese war materials and public/private properties.

Whatever the reparation process was, the disarmament of Japan was complete by the end of 1947.

March 1946

2011-10-20T18:41:00.015+08:00

[Above: 海防艦３４号 No 34 Sea Defense Ship]

It is now better understood how the Japanese residents of Danshui were repatriated. A report by Mr Hirokawa today is posted below [source in Japanese: here]:

At this year's Tansui-Kai meeting, members ruminated about the repatriation experience. Some recalled that in March, 1946, they reported to the Governor General's Office [now the Presidential Palace] in Taipei, then took the train [in Taipei Station] to Keelung where the 引き揚げhiki-age ships awaited. Most of them were on board of Liberty ships during this evacuation. After one week at sea, the evacuees arrived in 大竹Otake [about 20 miles southwest of Hiroshima]. The reason for the long one-week journey was to avoid mines in the seas near Japan, the ships must therefore sail along the coastlines of the mainland. These Liberty ships were hastily built in the US during WWII to meet the needs of wartime transportation:

Some were evacuated on board of 海防艦Sea Defense ships [gun boats]. At least one Tansui-Kai member from Miyazaki Prefecture returned from Keelung to Kagoshima on 海防艦３４号 (pictured above) - after two nights and three days. He was then temporarily sheltered in 天保山Ten-po-san Elementary School near Hiroshima.

海防艦s were 70 meter long with a 700 tonnage, used in 引き揚げ process up until 1947 when they were handed over to the Soviet Union.

A postscript: One of Eyedoc's cousins remembers traveling from Danshui to Taipei Station to see her best friend 小林玲子 off and has lost contact ever since - until last year. Her friend, a member of Tansui-Kai, turns out to be alive and well now residing near Tokyo.

Tansui-Kai 淡水会 10-18-2011

2011-10-17T17:06:00.009+08:00

Tansui-Kai淡水会 2011 will meet at 6PM on Oct 18. The venue will be the Green Hotel 「グリーンホテル」 in Mie Prefecture Mie County Komono-cho Chikusa 「三重県三重郡菰野町千草」.

Tansui-Kai was founded by Kinoshita Seigai木下静涯 and ex-residents of Tansui [Danshui] who were expatriated back to Japan in 1946. They have always remembered their faraway hometown.

For the first time, at this year's meeting, Mayor Tsai's report on the progress of Tamsui will be presented and pamphlets on the many festivities in Oct in Danshui distributed.

We wish the members of Tansui-Kai a wonderful get-together.

Tsunami津波 hit northeast Japan - Part 2

2011-09-21T02:47:00.020+08:00

Much has been reported that the coastal areas of Northeast Japan were wiped out by the tsunami on March 11, 2011. And that a few cities including Miyako City 宮古市 have been erased off the map. Here is a report from Eyedoc who has decided to see it for himself:

宮古市, just like Danshui, is also a seaside town sitting next to a river that flows into the ocean. This fishing town is famous for not only fresh catches but also the scallops. It is located 90 km east of 盛岡市Morioka City, the capital of 岩手 Iwate Prefecture. It is a 2-hour bus ride from Morioka Station through the winding roads and tunnels cutting into the foot of the hills. Small patches of rice fields carved out of the sloping shores of a shallow brook abound. The entry into Miyako is far less dramatic than expected. It is simply there, an ordinary, quiet town. Although in its heyday, it was wall-to-wall tourists this time of the year. Below is the Miyako Station area where the last bus stop is with only a few pedestrians in sight:
Seeing no fallen buildings anywhere, the first question is where were all the damages. It turns out the city center has mostly been spared. The front edge of the tsunami mercifully stopped somewhere short of the train station, which was only one km away from the sea. Although along the narrow [main] street, there are still a few houses shuttered and a number of empty lots - the street had served as the conduit to the flood water. The devastation suddenly becomes clear in the bay area where the tidal wave entering the mouth of the river had overcome an entire area of houses and buildings leaving only the foundations behind. Here is one of the few remaining buildings that has sustained extensive damage:
Below: a few houses awaiting demolition and the grassy area is where residential houses used to be:
Traveling on the highway high above the shoreline from Miyako north, on the 浄土ヶ浜 Joto-ga-hama Bridge looking down, one can see a collapsed concrete bridge:
And on the other side of the highway bridge, among the utter destruction, one lone Jinga miraculously survived:
Then onto the 田老Taro area, supposed to be safe behind a 9-m tall levee system, was pretty much all gone leaving only remnants of the four walls of each house. The old Taro neighborhood is no longer:
Along this road, in front of the now disappeared houses, someone placed a few hundred rectangular boxes each packed with blooming flowers, adding color to a dreadful scene. A signal of hope, perhaps. Not too far from this spot, a gas station remains open; the pumps are manned by two gentlemen with the rest of the station in tatters. Resilience, it seems.

In all the flooded areas, all the debris have been removed and backhoes are still hard at work. One would expect an army of construction workers feverishly working on various reconstruction projects. This is, however, not to be, not yet anyway.

Life is of course no longer the same in Miyako. The famed Miyako scallops are now imported from Hokkaido. The fish caught here are not marketable because the rest of Japan deem the seafood from Miyako contaminated with human flesh.

In talking with the residents in Miyako, one gets the impression that they are still quite hopeful in the eventual recovery of their beloved city. How long will it take, no one really knows.

The Kambaro Miyako [or Tohoku, or Morioka] signs are now everywhere urging the citizens to "Let's go!"

Let's hope the slogan shouting soon fades into memory.

The Seediq and the Ainu

2011-09-05T13:01:00.014+08:00

The Seediq and the Ainu, two aboriginal people that had revolted under the Japanese rule.

This is a unique dragon-and-bell lantern with both bronze and iron parts located on the grounds of 塩竈Shiogama Jinja in Shiogama City. It was dedicated in 1814 to commemorate the safe return of 仙台Sendai servicemen from a mission to the 蝦夷Ezo Region. Ezo Region was annexed by Japan and renamed 北海道Hokkaido in 1867, 28 years before the annexation of Taiwan.

Ezo or Ainuアイヌ are the original indigenous people in Japan, now officially estimated at 25,000 in population size. Outside of Hokkaido, they can also be found living in Russia-controlled Kuril Islands, the Sakhalin Island, and the Kamchatka Peninsula.

During the Tokugawa德川 period (1600–1868), the Matsu-ma-e松前 clan was granted the exclusive right to trade with the Ainu. The clan had also distributed the trading right to a number of Japanese merchants. And with it, the unavoidable conflicts that resulted in the Ainu revolts, e.g., the Shakushain's Revolt (シャクシャインの戦い, 1669-1672) and the Kunashir-Menashi Rebellion (クナシリ・メナシの戦い, 1789). These uprisings, unfortunately, had failed to liberate the Ainu from Japanese exploitation and oppression. To maintain control, even though the Matsumae clan was charged with the defense of the northern border, troops from different parts of mainland Japan were still needed - hence the lantern memorial shown in the photo above.

[Above: Ainu harvesting seaweed, painting by 歌川国輝Kuniteru II, dated 1871.]

The subsequent management of the Ainu included the following:

In 1899, the Japanese government enacted the "Former Aborigines Protection Act", that effectively stripped the Ainu of their aboriginal status and their rights to transfer land ownership [their common ancestral land already had been confiscated 30 years earlier and given to Japanese settlers from the south]. To avoid persecution, intermarriages with the Japanese were actively promoted by the Ainu themselves.

In 1997, the 1899 law was repealed, acknowledging the existence, but not the recognition of the legal status, of ethnic minorities in Japan.

And on June 6, 2008, Japan formally recognized Ainu as an indigenous group and with it, the re-establishment of the tribal identity.

The 1899 law had instituted compulsory public education for Ainu children. Other laws forced the Ainu to learn Japanese language and adopt Japanese names. The managing policy was essentially to force Ainu into the Japanese culture complete with Japanese citizenship. This experiment has failed - after 109 years.

The Japanese Colonial Gov't in Taiwan had employed the same seemingly successful approach at the time in managing the Aborigines. And the results varied from tribe to tribe even among the tribes. In the case of the Seediq [Atayal], the forced assimilation finally culminated in the 霧社WuShe Incident in 1930 - now a well-known part of the Taiwan history and a potentially blockbuster movie "Seediq Bale 賽德克巴萊" - Part 1 to be shown in theaters in Taiwan on Sept 9 and Part 2, Sept 30:

In this Incident, the Japanese not only deployed its superior fire-power with poison gas, mountain canons, mortars, machine guns, and aerial bombardment, but also pitted a rival Seediq tribe and other pro-Japan tribes against the rebellious WuShe Seediq in hand-to-hand combats.

In the aftermath, the Japanese Native Policy was revamped and re-implemented with apparent success; in fact, many Aborigines, including the Atayal, later joined the Takasago Volunteer Army and took part in the Pacific War [for more, see here]. After 1945, they were, however, deemed too pro-Japan and were subjected to intense re-education.

Perhaps as the inspiring examples of fighting the Japanese to the death, two of the WuShe Seediq, 花岡一郎 [tribal name: 拉奇斯諾敏] and 花岡二郎 [tribal name: 達基斯那威] were inducted into the Taipei County [New Taipei City] Martyrs' Shrine in our little town Danshui (in ca 1968). There is a problem, though: They did not participate in the revolt; instead, both had committed suicide and died an honorable warrior's death, 一郎 in the Japanese style and 二郎, the Aboriginal tradition. [Note: They were not related despite the brotherly names.]

An additional observation: With the anti-Japan (and the inherently pro-Aboriginal) theme, this Seediq Bale movie, praised by both KMT and DPP party chiefs, should be well received in Communist China, far more so than the Japan-philic Cape No 7 海角七號 (2008) - another commercial success also directed by Director 魏德聖 - unless the minority uprising is too sensitive an issue. It also remains to be seen if the Japanese Film Board allows this movie to be shown in Japan. These will be an interesting test of "Art transcends politics" - Wei's wish after failing to convince the Venice Film Festival organizers that his movie was produced in Taiwan, not China-Taiwan.

You are marrying whom !?

2011-09-03T22:52:00.015+08:00

On May 2, 2010, news in Taiwan reported the resolution of 鄭施不通婚 [prohibition of marriages between the Chengs and the Shi's]. It was declared by the heads of two clan associations from Taichung (Cheng) and Hokkien (Shi) jointly. This proclamation is, however, both non-binding and without authority, so the 300-year-old tradition will continue.

The origin of this custom is the long-standing feud between Koxinga and Ming-Cheng turncoat 施琅Shi-Lang. Koxinga killed Shi-Lang's father and brother (1650) as a punishment for Shi's disobeying an order not to execute 曾德Tseng-Der. And years later (1683), Shi ended the Tung-Ning Dynasty on Qing's behalf. The restriction of marriages between the two families was originally limited to 泉州Chuan-chou area but later extended to all of Taiwan.

There is another marriage ban known only to the Koxinga-Cheng clan, i.e., never marry any 黄Huangs. It is not entirely clear why this practice; although it appears to be related to the conniving acts of another Ming-Cheng turncoat, 黄梧Huang-Wu.

[Above: The family temple of 黄梧Huang-Wu in 平和Pin-Ho County, 漳州Chang-chou]

A young 黄梧, after assassinating the corrupt head of his home county, joined Koxinga's forces in Amoy in the 2nd month of 1644 and received a mid-level appointment with 200 taels of silver as bonus. He distinguished himself in many battles against the Qing and rose through the ranks until 1650 when he found himself in a delicate situation.

When Koxinga ordered the arrest of Shi-Lang, Huang's superior 蘇茂Su-Mao actually allowed Shi to escape. Su-Mao was later killed and by implication, Huang was also found guilty and fined heavily (in the form of a contribution of 500 sets of armors). Huang subsequently became quite concerned of his own safety. In a transfer of duty to 海澄Hai-chen, the main logistic center of Ming-Cheng and the gateway to Amoy and Kinmoy, Huang decided to defect to the Qing and handed over the fort. For this act, he was awarded the title of Duke of 海澄. In the 3rd month of 1657, the Qing Court further honored his ancestors and provided funds to build his family temple (see above). In return, he plotted enthusiastically for the downfall of Koxinga. He trained a naval force (1658) and defeated 周端, Koxinga's commander in Hokkien (1660), recommended Shi-lang for the eventual invasion of Taiwan. And among his many proposals submitted to Qing Court was the 《平海五策》[The Five Strategies for Conquering the Sea] with one of them purely for personal vendetta:

四．成功之祖先墳墓在各處，叛臣賊子罪誅及九族，何況其祖乎？應加以遷毀，慕露殄滅，使其命脈斷，則種類不待誅而自滅。[No 4: The nine relations of rebels/traitors are all punished by death, how can their ancestors be exempted. Koxinga's ancestral graves everywhere must be removed and destroyed and the remains exposed. This way, the whole lineage will be interrupted and the clan self-destructed without the need of exterminating them at all.]

In the 10th Month of 1662, 黄梧 submitted a confidential proposal to have Koxinga's father Cheng Zi-Long [and family members] executed.

Both proposals were accepted and carried out. Koxinga could not believe the news of his father's and brothers' death when he first learned of it in Taiwan. Soon after, he passed away, in apparent anguish.

This was not the end of the story, however.

In 1674, 耿精忠Geng Jing-Chung revolted against the Qing and 黃梧 seemed to have joined 耿 in this revolt (still being debated if this ever happened); although Huang soon died of a painful illness. In any case, his son 黃芳度Huang Fang-Du took over the defense of 漳州, then disputed with and fought against 耿. This was followed by surrendering to Koxinga's son Cheng Jing [who was then on a mission to recover the mainland]. 黃芳度, however, double-crossed Cheng Jing by secretly allying with the Qing and refused to host Cheng Jing in 漳州. Cheng Jing, sensing Huang's treachery, attacked the city and entered it when Huang's second-in-command 吳淑We-su opened the gate. Huang killed himself by jumping into a well at Kai-yuan Temple 開元寺. Cheng Jing ordered 黃梧's coffin opened and 黃芳度's body recovered, and both of them beheaded. Thirty some members of the Huang family were also executed.

One branch of the descendants of the surviving Huangs migrated to Taichung in 1878, and another to Ilan.

This specific order for the Koxinga-Chengs not to marry any Huangs is still in full effect today.

Aboriginal marriages

2011-08-27T18:46:00.006+08:00

[The Siraya protesting against take-over of ancestral land by the gov't. Source: http://savingsiraya.blogspot.com/2011/06/siraya-glossary.html]

These are expert comments by Andrew Kerslake, re-posted here for easy access:

In many, but not all, Plains Aborigine societies (Siraya and Makato especially), there was a cultural taboo against marriage and live births before the age of 32 for women and 34 for men.

It is believed that this tradition served two simultaneous goals. The Sirayic or Tsouic cultures practice uxorilocal marriage in which the man marries into the woman's house. Siraya used an age-grade system to mete out access to various forms of cultural power and responsibility much like the traditional Amis. When Siraya men achieved a certain level of status once his headhunting days were over, he would pluck the hair on part of his scalp and retreat to a position of "elder". This was the pinnacle of his power.

The Siraya also used this age grade system to manage the sexual division of labor in which the men hunted game and prepared for war. The women reared children, did the weaving, tended the fields and did other housework.

European reports often regarded the men as "lazy" and the women as "hard working". This is because the younger men spent their time hanging in the bachelor house repairing weapons, repairing bodies and preparing for the physical demands of the hunt or the battleground.

So, a prohibition of marriage and live births before 32/34 respectively ensured that (a) a man could risk his life in the hunt or on the battlefield to secure heads without fear of leaving a wife or child if he should die. (b) When a man turned 34 his body would be wearing down and he would no longer be as spry as the young men (yes, we all remember when it happened to us). The man would then be free to marry and move into his wife's house. By this time her father would be in his mid-sixties and realistically too old to compete with his son-in-law as the top man of the house. By that time, if he were still alive, he would be relegated to helping the women with the farming and house chores, which would have relegated him to the status as a "female" and have really no standing in the community as he would be too feeble to participate in "manly" activities.

When the Dutch introduced Christianity, many of the younger Siraya welcomed the change as it allowed them to leapfrog their way to higher positions in the community without having to abide by the age grade system.

I imagine this may have led to an explosion in live births that may have later been misrepresented as Han settlement. Later, during the Cheng and Qing administrations, it is conceivable to believe that many other indigenous groups also experienced a baby boom as they acculturated into Confucio-Han beliefs. I can even see how it may have been embraced by older men who may have felt more revered under the system and able to sire more children.

What is clear is that under the Chengs there was a lack of available women. There had also been enough cases of Han/Aborigine cohabitation under the Dutch to make the Dutch registers. The Chengs had to import something like 20,000 women from present-day Vietnam, Indonesia and China to appease the ranks.

Despite the various maritime quarantines, many women made the trip. A lot of men also retreated back to China.

Still lots of questions that remain, but I think the indigenous contribution is greater than currently accepted, but not as high as many might wish.

Let me just add that by the 19th century there were many villages already described by Europeans as "half-caste". It is unclear how the offspring of cross cultural marriages viewed their ethnicity, but by Han cultural norms they would have been regarded as Han and thus may have led to some confusion in the records.

Another important note is that in the Confucio-Han cosmologies adopted by the Qing, the blood, DNA or direct descent was not regarded as being very important. Having a child tend to ancestral graves and work all the Fengshui was far more important than blood. This made interethnic adoption a very accepted and common way for Indigenous children to become Han. The importance of blood only came after the arrival of Darwinian science and the ethnic nationalist movements of the latter 19th century.

Manchuria 1945-6 - Part 2

2011-08-22T22:49:00.035+08:00

[The Japanese graveyard - two groups of Japanese settlers were buried here.]

In the winter of 1945, while escaping from the settlements in northern-most Chinese territory 黑龍江, 15,000 Japanese 開拓團 refugees arrived in 方正縣, 180 km east of Harbin [see map in http://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2010/05/manchuria-1946.html]. Roughly 5,000 of them perished from exposure, starvation, disease, and suicide, and 4,500 young women and children were adopted by the locals [see also: http://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html].

In 1946, on humanitarian grounds, the remains were collected and cremated, and buried in a mass grave. In 1963, the CCP central gov't approved the construction of a grave site and named it "方正地区日本人公墓" and the ashes were re-interred in this site. In 1973, the grave was relocated to the present site. And in 1984, 530 sets of remains from 麻山 District [those massacred by the Soviets] were buried next to the original one with an identical monument, marked the "麻山地区日本人公墓" (see photo above).

[Above: The memorial wall inscribed with the names of the deceased was built immediately behind the two tombs (below).]

In the 1970s, most of these Japanese orphans were repatriated back to Japan and, in gratitude, they have built a memorial, near the graveyard, to honor their Chinese foster parents. The historical twist was quite complicated and now at least 48% of the 方正 residents have some ties with Japan as a result. Since the 1990s, building a memorial wall listing the names of the deceased has gained enthusiastic local support. With private and public funding, the wall was eventually built and the graveyard opened to visitors from Japan. On 7/30/2011, a micro-blog post reporting the Japanese Consul General in Shenyang visiting a memorial dedicated to the "Japanese invaders/war criminals" went viral. And the always overly patriotic Chinese netizens quickly organized themselves, threatening to totally demolish the wall.

On 8/3, 5 netizens/vandals [from Hunan, Hebei, and Henan, members of a certain “中国保钓联盟”] came to the grave site and splashed red paint on the memorial wall after failing to take it down with hammers [above].

On 8/6, in the middle of the night, the memorial was hastily removed by the local gov't leaving only a slight depression behind. More outside netizens arrived at the graveyard seeking to do more damage. After seeing no memorial wall on site, they lit firecrackers to celebrate the "victory of justice".

It appears extremists-nationalists now not only rule the virtual world in China, they have also gone beyond spewing words of irrational hatred into physical violence.

[Above: The five courageous netizens who won a self-proclaimed victory over

the defense-less dead (below).]

In the meantime, the citizens of 方正縣 are now labeled as 漢奸 - a term heard quite often in the immediate post-1945 days in Taiwan.

Following the display of this patriotism, Chinese-style, one netizen in Taiwan questioned Ma Ying-jeou's honoring 八田與一 (Hata Yu-ichi, 1886-1942), the Japanese engineer who designed and built 嘉南大圳 during the Japanese Colonial era [Mr Hata's ship was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine while enroute to the Philippines and Mrs Hata committed suicide one day after Japan surrendered]. Fortunately, "就事論事,恩怨分明", not twisted logic to justify the blind hatred of all Japanese, still prevails in Taiwan.

Illegal migration/immigration

2011-08-15T04:01:00.060+08:00

The above is a map of the 4 major migration routes in the Qing era [click to enlarge]. The migrants/immigrants originated principally from 泉州Chuan-chow, 漳州Chang-chow, and 潮/惠州Chau/Hui-chow 府prefectures. The first two groups are the Hoklo and the last, mostly Hakka. Together, they are conventionally known as the Taiwanese.

Since the number of illegal migrants/immigrants has also been debated as far as the origin of Taiwanese, another discussion here may help clarify this matter somewhat [even though a previous post has already touched upon the subject, see here].

First, it must be realized the immigrants arrived in Taiwan in several waves. And the population increased tremendously despite the 229 years of the Qing rule that had actually banned the arrival of women. If one accepts the ban as being absolute, then the population growth must be explained. Many have tried and there are now two major competing theories:

(1) Male migrants intermarried with Aboriginal women; and
(2) Corrupt immigration system and people smuggling were the major factors.

These two are not necessarily mutually exclusive; although they have now become so owing to, IMHO, incomplete or falsely constructed information. The only way to resolve the issue is to re-visit the immigration history of Taiwan.

Take the 羅漢腳 [the Loitering Bachelors] for example, some of these poor souls did intermarry with the Aboriginal women in the early years of the Qing rule. [Left: in the countryside, small shrines such as this one were built to commemorate the 羅漢腳 who died young and family-less.] They entered Taiwan either legally or illegally - illegal if they could not pay the exorbitant permit fees and paid the less expensive people smugglers instead. However, it'll be way too simplistic to regard them as the ancestors of present-day Taiwanese. Unless the Aboriginal men had all forfeited their right to propagate, the number of intermarriages would have been quite small. There is a modern-day parallel: the intermarriages between KMT veterans [the "老兵old soldiers"] and Aboriginal [and Han] women in the past 60 years, are also quite rare, even newsworthy at times.

The first wave of immigration refers to that before and during the Dutch era. This is irrelevant to the present discussion.

The second wave lasted from 1661 (the beginning of Ming-Cheng) until 1735 (the end of the 雍正 period). During the Ming-Cheng era, an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Southern Hokkienese migrated to Taiwan. However, with the Ming-Cheng soldiers forced back to the mainland, and a restriction by the Qing law enacted in 1683, the 「台灣編查流寓條例」, the number of Han-people would have been at an all-time low shortly after 1683. [Note: this Ming-Cheng turncoat 施琅's law stipulated that 1.渡行台灣者必須事先取得許可，密航者處以懲罰。(Permit to emigrate to Taiwan is required; violators will be punished - hence the thriving smuggling industry.); 2.渡行台灣者不得攜眷，已渡臺者亦不得接取家族。(No family members allowed into Taiwan - usually the wives - held as hostages for a better control of the immigrants and the garrison force.); and 3.廣東屢成海盜淵藪，因積習未改，其住民不許渡臺 (Canton is frequently a home to pirates, its residents - including the Hakka - therefore are not allowed into Taiwan.] The 羅漢腳 and the "absolutely no Cantonese/Hakka allowed" policy were both a part of this legacy. For the well-to-do "pioneers/developers", they could afford to travel back and forth between Taiwan and the mainland, much like the 台商 of today except in reverse. This was not so for those loitering bachelors who often became unruly and a menace to the society.

Some readers may have been under the impression that this 1683 law was strictly enforced throughout the Qing rule. This was not the case at all. Even under the restriction, many immigrants still prospered and their families later became prominent Taiwanese families. For example, 連横Lien-heng, the author of 台灣通史, descended from 連興位 who emigrated to Tainan in 康熙二十一年 (1682). And from Chang-chow prefecture alone, families identified by 49 surnames arrived and settled in southern Taiwan. This suggests a certain degree of laxity in enforcing the immigration law.

By the end of the 雍正 reign (ca 1735), local officials petitioned the Qing Court for a relaxation of the ban. The governor of Taiwan-fu 沈起元 had requested an increase in the number of immigrants from Hokkien, in his 《條陳台灣事宜狀》, he stated that "漳泉兩地無籍之民，無田可耕，無工可傭，無食可覓。一到台地，上之可以致富，下之可以溫飽"[in both Chang-chow and Chuan-chow, drifter-people with no land to till, no job to hold, no food to feed on will become rich or at least well-off once they arrive in Taiwan]. This proposal had received wide support, and the Qing Court relented.

The third wave of immigration started in 1735, until 1895 (when the Japanese took over the island).

In 1735, immigration of whole families was permitted. Between 1732 and 1875, the law changed from officially sanctioned immigrants on "官渡" only, to including private immigration through "私渡", allowing brothers, couples, or the entire extended family if they migrated together. These plus the illegals were the core groups of Taiwanese, not those few during the second wave that had intermarried with the Aborigines. And according to 台灣通史, by 嘉慶十六年(1811), over 2 million Han-people now resided in Taiwan.

As another examples, during this period, the ancestors of two of the more prominent Lin families migrated in:

In 1746, 林石 moved to Wufeng霧峰, his descendants were well-known Qing generals that included 林文察 and his son 林朝棟 (a major player in the Sino-French war in 1884).

In 1778, 林應寅 migrated to 新莊 and in 1781, his son arrived in Taipei, these were members of the 板橋林家 (the Lin Family Garden is a perennial tourists' attraction).

These and most other families from both waves can trace their family roots back to Hokkien and beyond.

The Qing restriction was finally lifted in toto in 1875. The law was never enforceable in the first place and people smuggling never stopped for as long as the demand was there. In 1759, for example, the gov't caught 25 smuggling operations in action resulting in the arrest of 990+ illegals.

The Hakka came in later and fewer in number than the Hoklo in part because of the initial total ban (both men and women). The first recorded 械鬥armed gang warfare between the Hoklo and the Cantonese (Hakka) was in 1721 [i.e., during the restriction period when the Hakka were supposedly banned] that took place in Feng-shan, a population center since the Tung-Ning Kingdom days. These deadly fights in other heavily populated areas were to continue until 1862 or even later, but that is another story.

Sources:

1. 連橫：《台灣通史》
2. 沈雲：《台灣鄭氏始末》卷4，《台灣文獻叢刊》第25種
3. 沈起元：《條陳台灣事宜狀》，《經世文篇》卷84
4. 《東征記》卷4，《台灣文獻叢書》第12種
5. 余文儀：乾隆二十九年《續修台灣府志》
6. 《清德宗實錄》卷3

The origin of Taiwanese

2011-08-11T21:00:00.045+08:00

In the past few years, media reports on the origin of the Taiwanese have appeared with headlines such as "85% of Taiwanese are the descendants of the Aborigines", "Taiwanese are not Chinese", etc. Reporters in Taiwan tend to sensationalize issues using mis-interpreted information, so these are not quite that surprising. To avoid confusion, the abstract in English and a summary in Chinese of the original paper published in 2001, written by Dr Lin Ma-li herself, are both quoted below, so readers can get the first-hand info and form their own opinion [note: red highlights are added for clarity].

A quick summation first. Lin's paper essentially states that

(1) based on one tissue antigen marker, both the Hoklo and the Hakka appear to descend from the Yue Tribe (the Southern Savages);
(2) based on the white cell antigen study, 13% of "Taiwanese" share one marker with the Aborigines, not as high as imagined, and impossible to verify since past Pinpuhuan tribes are now hard to find;
(3) the Northern Han were the pure Han; the ancestors of Taiwanese were not, they had self-assimilated into the Han to gain survival advantages; and
(4) the Southern Han with 3 subgroups were different from the Northerners; how close the modern Taiwanese are to the Southern-Han remains to be investigated.

There was never any mention of "Taiwanese were not Chinese" anywhere.

The original abstract is here:

"The Minnan and Hakka people groups, the so-called “Taiwanese”, are the descendants of early settlers from the southeast coast of China during the last few centuries. Genetically they showed affinities to southern Asian populations, as determined by phylogenetic trees and correspondence analysis calculated from HLA allele frequencies. This corresponds historically with the fact that they are the descendants of the southeast coastal indigenous population (Yueh) of China and should therefore not be considered as descendants of “pure” northern Han Chinese. A33-B58-DRB1*03 (A33-Cw10-B58-DRB1*03-DQB1*02), the most common HLA haplotype among “Taiwanese”, with a haplotype frequency of 6.3%, has also been found to be the most common haplotype among Thai-Chinese and Singapore Chinese, two other populations also originating from the southeast coast of China. These observations suggests that this haplotype is the most well-conserved ancient haplotype of the Yueh."

And the article in Chinese:

從組織抗原推論閩南人及客家人所謂"台灣人"的來源

林媽利

摘要

台灣的閩南人及客家人也就是所謂的「台灣人」(以下均以括弧的「台灣人」代表閩南人及客家人)，最近幾世紀以來自中國大陸東南沿海地區移民的後代，在基因上經族群系統發生樹(phylogenetic tree)及族群相關分析(correspondence analysis)研究計算後，發現閩南人及客家人是屬於南亞洲人種，這剛好配合民族史的記載，認為「台灣人」是大陸東南沿海原住民「越族」的後代。A33-B58-DRE1*03(即A33-Cw10-B58-DRB1"03-DQB1*02)是台灣人最常見的組織抗原(HIO"-A)半套體，頻率為六‧三％，而這半套體在新加坡華人及泰國華人也算是最常見，顯示這是被完整保留下來的古代越族的基因。

前言

「台灣人」是台灣島上最大的族群，祖先是近四○○年從大陸東南沿海地區移民過來的。先民到達台灣後，不少和原住民通婚，主要是和平地的平埔族，也有和高山原住民。在我們以前的研究發現「台灣人」十三％的基因(HLA-A,B, C半套體)是來自原住民，在那個研究我們是做了九族高山原住民即在消失中的「巴宰」平埔族的研究，這雖然顯示「台灣人」的基因中並沒有像想像中的有許多原住民的基因，但因為昔日的九族平埔族現在已不易找到，無從研究及比較，所以到底有多少現在「台灣人」的基因是來自這些已經消失的平埔族是不得而知的。但是另一方面「台灣人」經口述或從族譜代代相傳，自認「台灣人」的祖先是來自中國北方的中原，在漢朝及以後的幾百年當中為了逃避北方匈奴的侵略而南遷到中國大陸東南沿海地區，所以「台灣人」應該算是北方中原和人的純種後代，所以屬於偉大的漢人傳統「華夏」。在這研究中我們分析閩南人及客家人的ＨＬＡ(為組織抗原的簡稱資料，建構族群系統發生樹、畫製族群的相關分析圖、追蹤及比對在閩南人客家人最常見的ＨＬＡ半套體在別族群出現的情形，借此希望澄清有關「台灣人」的來源。

討論

就單單從許多ＨＬＡ研究的結果，長久以來即已經知道北方漢人及南方漢人在基因上不同，這和發現的中國史前資料及有文字記載以後的歷史相配合，「中原文化」是在中國北方黃河的黃土高原發展出來的，從最近挖掘出來的栗米(millets)可以追溯到公元前六到七千年之久。中原文化在夏、商、周時期是在長江以北，直到秦朝(公元前二二一 ~ 二○六年)後政治的勢力才及於中國大陸的中南方。最近的考古研究發現在中國大陸南方，再同一個時候存在另一個獨立且不同於中原文化的「越沿海文化」，從長江三角洲到越南北方的紅河三角洲。但是南方的歷史只從公元前五○○年左右吳越相爭之前才開始有的，越王勾踐的「臥薪嚐膽」富國的故事是大家所熟悉的。「越族」是指大陸東南沿海(浙江、福建、廣東及廣西)的居民，在漢朝以前因為這地區文化的多樣性而被稱為「百越」。除了春秋戰國的吳越相爭即在漢朝時期部份越族的北移外，在中國的歷史(及中原文化的歷史)並沒有太多有關越族的記載，因為在中國的歷史除了中原文化外，其他族群均屬「蠻族」。閩人及台灣閩南人的祖先是居住在福建的越族，根據林惠祥及Meacham的研究，今日的閩人是東南沿海地區原住民「越族」的後代，雖然在秦朝即接下來的魏晉南北朝五胡亂華時期，因為戰亂北方中原人士紛紛南遷，有可能引起部份有限的中原基因的滲入。當「越」的文化漸漸被「漢」化後，「越族」就在歷史上被改名成「漢族」，導致今日台灣的閩南人錯誤的判斷且自認為是純種北方漢族的後代。在中國歷史上許多民族接受漢文化而漢化，後來這些人民也常常宣稱他們是漢族，這是因為在過去漢文化是強勢文化，所以當了漢人可得到利益及社會地位。在客家人的情形也是相似，在南宋(一一二七 ~ 一二七九ＡＤ)或更早的時期有少數的中原家族南遷到東南沿海的山區，這些人以強勢的漢文化在文化及語言上影響週遭的原住民，特別是住在廣東的越族，所以早期的少數中原移民加上眾多的越族而成客家族群。

我們以統計得到基因距離Ｄ及ＤＡ建構的族群系統發生樹，顯示閩南人與客家人有相當一致的基因，所以先合在一起，然後在和泰國華人、新加坡華人合併成一枝，而這些族群都是起源於東南沿岸的原住民「越族」，其中最重要的是「台灣人」明顯的和北方漢人分開。慈濟骨髓登陸的資料建構的族群系統發生樹顯示「台灣人」和南方漢人合併，但和北方漢人分開。其他許多ＨＬＡ的研究，及別的基因漢遺傳標誌，像免疫球蛋白、血型、葡萄糖六磷酸去氫酵素及染色體ＤＮＡ微衛星等，都明顯的把「台灣人」和北方漢人分開，不久前中國北京的中科院遺傳研究所和美國史坦福大學Cavalli-Sforza合作研究，以中國人的姓氏及三種簡單的血型分佈情形將北方漢人與南方漢人分開，在該項研究中南方漢人再被分為三群，及長江下游以上海為中心的一群、長江流域的一群集另一群屬於越族的東南沿海地區及島嶼(包括台灣)的居民。中國人的姓氏約有四○○○尼的歷史而且是由男性承傳，所以可以認為代表Ｙ染色體的遺傳，該研究更藉著中國的二十八省加上台灣以ＡＢＯ、ＭＮ及Ｒｈ(Ｄ)血型的基因頻率而計算出族群的關係，畫製成第一度及第二度空間上的族群主要相關圖明顯的把東南沿海地區及台灣的居民(及越族)與其他地區的居民分開。

以上資料顯示南方漢人是源自南方而有別於北方漢人，「台灣人」是古代越族的後代而保存著古代越族的基因A33-Cw10-B58-DRB1*03-DQB01*02。有關「台灣人」與南方漢人的基因距離的遠近，有待將來的研究，因為現在這研究中所用的南方漢人資料有一半是自福建。

(本文為摘要，全文刊登於Tissue Antigens 57(3), 192-199, 2001)

In addition, the frequently cited 85% [of Taiwanese are descendants of the Aborigines] value seems to have come from an article attributed to Dr Lin (published in The Liberty Times, 8/11/2007):

"...在一百人當中只有三十三人的父母系血緣全部來自亞洲大陸，其他六十七人的父母系血緣是混合了台灣原住民、東南亞島嶼族群及亞洲大陸的血緣。分析這三十三人的組織抗原半套型的來源，看到十八人帶有台灣原住民的基因，十人帶有中國東南沿海越族特徵的基因，二個西南亞洲基因及各一個北方漢人、藏人及歐洲人的基因，所以根據三個系統的分析，八十五％的台灣人是帶有台灣原住民的血緣，所以是平埔公、平埔嬤、唐山公、唐山嬤，還有高山公、高山嬤及少數外國基因一起建構了非原住民台灣人的基因。"
Among the 100 volunteers, 67 have a "blood relation" with the Aborigines, SE Asian Islands people, and Asian continent groups. Of the other 33, 18 carry an Aboriginal gene, 10 have the Yue characteristic, and the rest, a mixed bag.

In a post published on 8/27/2008, Dr Lin re-stated her findings:

"...我們把100人的父母系血緣的結果放在一起評估，發現有67人的父母系血緣或兩個血緣中的一個血緣是來自原住民或東南亞島嶼族群，剩下33人的父母系血緣則全來自亞洲大陸，然而我們在這33人的組織抗原分析當中發現18人帶有很可能來自原住民的血緣，因此從三個基因系統(母系血緣、父系血緣、組織抗原)，有 67人+18人=85人，也就是約85%的台灣人帶有原住民及或東南亞島嶼族群的基因..."

So, based on bloodline analysis, 67 are found to have markers from the "Aborigines or SE Asian islanders [and the Asian continent component now omitted for some reason] on either the maternal or the paternal, or both sides. The other 33 all have bloodline markers from the Asian continent; although 18 are with possibly an Aboriginal tissue antigen marker. Combining all three markers, then you end up with (67+18)/100 = 85% [without taking mutual-exclusivity into account, however]. It was more speculative than conclusive at least as far as the tissue antigen. And it was a combined "原住民及或[and/or]東南亞島嶼族群的基因" implying the Aborigines in Taiwan share a common genetic marker with the SE Asian islanders. In this sense, the claim of "85% of the Taiwanese descended from the SE Asian islanders" would be equally valid, migratory history notwithstanding.

Since all discoveries in science must withstand the time-test, Lin's study can be regarded as a theory based on some preliminary data. The protein-coding genes alone consist of as many as 30,000. Three markers are not nearly enough. It also should be noted that Lin's serological study was based on blood samples from 100 donors and the tissue antigen study from fewer than 250 volunteers. The participants were non-randomized self-proclaimed non-aboriginal Taiwanese. Extrapolation of the findings to the entire population therefore must be exercised with extreme caution.

The rebuttals often emphasize that Han is not a race but a culture and, Lin herself also concurs, that Taiwanese are whoever regard Taiwan as their homeland.

Let's just say the verdict is still out as far as the origin of the Taiwanese. For an important issue such as this, the scientific evidence must be irrefutable. We therefore advocate a nation-wide (not a small sample) mitochondrial DNA study.

Land transaction 1804

2011-08-08T23:25:00.026+08:00

[Click to enlarge]

It is often assumed a priori that the Aborigines in Taiwan were forced out by the newly arrived Han settlers. While the contests for land between the highland Hakka and the Aborigines were quite frequent, often with deadly results, it was far more common for the Qing era new immigrants to acquire land through purchases.

The above [source: http://www.darc.ntu.edu.tw] is an executed purchase agreement between a plaines aboriginal seller by the name of 利加力龜達 and two "honest [according to the document]" Han-buyers 郭然 and 石普. The transaction took place in the 11th Month of 嘉慶九年 (1804) for a parcel of land located in 金包里 (now 金山, north of Danshui).

The agreement detailed the boundaries of this piece of land and the purchase price of 40 silver dollars. And the reason for selling was because the owner was no longer capable of tilling the land which he had inherited from his grandfather. The permanent nature of this sale was also stipulated in the contract. It was signed with a thumb print by the seller and also by his witness, a relative named 順生. The official seal of approval was stamped by 翁麗力, the village manager/interpreter, a Han-Chinese, and the commission was also specified in the agreement. The aboriginal seller, most likely an illiterate, had also approved the deal with a palm print.

This was usually how the Aborigines parted with their land ownership during the Qing period that had actually continued into the early Japanese colonial [the Meiji] era. Many such purchase agreements have survived and some archived. The transactions appeared fair and square, at least on paper. Although, despite the lack of evidence, argument to the contrary, i.e., the Han-Taiwanese must have short-changed the ignorant/innocent Aborigines in some way, persists to this day. Naturally, this is not to say that there had never been any instances when the Aborigines were cheated by the Han-people [or vice versa for that matter] for 400 years is a long time. In fact, in early years, there were reports that some Han-men married Aboriginal women for their properties. At least one aspect appears clear that the Aborigines were not forced at knife-/gun-point to give up their land. Now, with more primary documents becoming available, a better understanding should result.

To complete the post: there were other ways for the Aborigines to lose their land ownership. During the Japanese era, those who leased their fields to Han-tenant farmers lost the land title to the government - which abolished the "big bad landlords slave-driving the little tenants" system, allegedly. The land was actually confiscated for developmental purposes, e.g., for growing sugarcane crops and building of sugar processing factories. And often through the eminent domain, whole tribes were relocated to remote areas. This vast governmental land holding was taken over by the KMT gov't in 1945, never returned to the original owners/tribes. And starting in 1947, the 公地放領 [Distribution of the Public Land] component of the 耕者有其田 [Tillers Own Their Own Land Reform] policy has made the situation from bad to worse. This has been a major source of discontent ever since.

Voyage to Taiwan 1804

2011-08-02T01:39:00.017+08:00

This is a contract between a Mr 彭Peng and a Mr 羅Luo, prepared by Peng's brother [click to enlarge; for more, see: here]. In it, Peng had agreed to pay exactly 31 [Mexican] dollars for his family of 9, male-female-old-and-young including 3 children, for the passage to Taiwan, on board of Luo's junk. Peng was also responsible for the meals along the way and also a transportation fee on a small ferry upon arrival. The contract was dated the 9th Year of 嘉慶 [1804], the 25th Day of the 1st Month. Since this contract carried the official signature of approval, it would contradict the oft-cited Qing prohibition of migration from China to Taiwan except selected males.

It was unknown from which port this family started their journey or the eventual destination; although it would appear to be from Amoy to Lakjemuyse.

Prior to the late 18th Century, 鹿耳門Lakjemuyse, literally the Deer's Ear Gate, was the only port of entry for ships sailing from China. After registration and inspection of passengers and cargoes, they were then allowed to sail to other ports of Taiwan. In 1784, another port of entry was added, the 鹿港Lu-Kang Port in Changhua. Danshui/Bali was added in 1792. And in 1826, two more ports, 海豐港Hai-feng Port in Changhua and 烏石港Wu-shi Port in I-Lan were also opened. Each port had a corresponding port of exit in China, for example, Lakjemuyse received ships from Amoy, and Danshui, from Foochow (from the 五虎門 Port). These were the officially sanctioned ports. Although, much like the porous borders in the US today, illegal entries were quite common as the whole coastline of Taiwan was readily accessible, plus it was only an overnight trip from China when the conditions for sailing were right.

The year 1804 was also when the 白蓮教White-Lotus Cult uprising was finally quelled by the Qing. This peasants' revolt, provoked by ruinous taxes and extremely harsh rules, started in 嘉慶元年(1796) in Hubei Province and quickly spread to Henan, Shangxi, and GanSu, and finally to Sichuan. This 9-year internal war had consumed much of the Qing financial resource. And the recovery was riding heavily on the backs of the common folks.

In the same year, 1804, Hokkien and Zejiang governments jointly started a campaign going after the marauding pirates. One of the main gangs was led by Chua-kang [Taiwanese pronunciation of 蔡牽]. In 1805, Chua attacked Lakjemuyse and Hobe/Bali. And in the 4th Month of the following year, Danshui/Hobe was sacked and occupied by Chua and his men, and a massacre ensued. To this day, Danshui-ren still commemorate those who died in this unfortunate incident [known as "敗滬尾", celebrated each year on the 18th Day of the 4th Month, lunar calendar]. Chua was finally defeated in 1809 near the Pescardores and committed suicide by blowing up his own ship.

So the 彭Pengs had voted with their feet, so to speak, leaving China for the dreamland, Taiwan. Judging from the handwriting and the language of the contract, the Pengs appear highly educated and well-to-do, not a family that needed to emigrate. It might not have been an easy decision at all. The war had also followed them to Taiwan, unfortunately; although it was quite unlikely that they happened to be in Danshui in 1806 and lost their lives there. Hakka-Pengs in fact constitute more than 70% of the Pengs in Taiwan and they typically reside in Hsin-chu, Miaoli, and Taoyuan. A good guess is that this family was also Hakka coming over to join other Pengs in, e.g., 竹東Chu-tong known to be a Peng stronghold, and the descendants have long become the locals.

The taking of Ft Zeelandia

2011-07-31T06:22:00.039+08:00

[Above: a VOC canon]

Readers of "Formosa under the Dutch (1903)" by Rev William Campbell甘為霖 (1841-1921) will know from the preface that this book consists of three parts, the first was based on the work of François Valentyn; the second, a collection of contemporary letters and church documents; and the third and last part, "Neglected Formosa ('t Verwaerloosde Formosa, 1675)" by Frederick Coyett 揆一.

For years, this has pretty much been the only source, presented in the English language, on the history of Koxinga's conquest of Taiwan. In fact, many authors have "borrowed" liberally from Campbell's book including, e.g., Davidson (1903), Rutter (1923), and Lach and Van Kley (1998). And since the contemporary Chinese records have not been systematically translated into English, the understanding of this part of the history is necessarily limited to Coyett's own account .

On the Chinese language side, not only Campbell's book has been translated, materials based on the VOC archives have also appeared in recent years. For example, "Degh-Register gehounden int Costeel Batavia [巴達維亞城日記The Batavia Diaries]" has been translated first into Japanese in 1970 by 村上真次郎 and then into Chinese and published in 1991. In 1999, Prof 江樹生 started publishing "De Dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia [熱蘭遮城日誌The Zeelandia Diaries]", also in Chinese, that covers the period of 1629-1662. These Zeelandia Diaries recorded the reports of the Dutch Governor Generals of Formosa, the meeting minutes of the Senate, and the official letters/documents, all in unprecedented detail. For example, in May, 1661 alone, there had been 8 communications between Koxinga and Coyett with most already lost from Chinese records:

1. voc 1235, f.520-521 Translaet missive door den groot mandorijn Cocxinja geschrijven aen den heere gouverneur Frederick, geschrijven in 't 15 jaer der regeringe van Indick de 3en mane den 29 dach。
2. voc 1235, f.520-521 Translaet van zekere placcaet van den Cocxinja vn den 27en 28 dach der 3en mane in 't 15 jaer der regeringe van coninick Indick
3. voc 1235, f.536-537 Translaet missive van Cocxinja naer casteeel Zeelandia aen den gouverneur Frederick, Saccam, 3 meij 1661 in 't 15 jaer der regeringe van Indick de 4en mane den 5 dach
4. voc 1235, f.542 Translaet missive van Cocxinja naer casteeel Zeelandia aen Frederick Coyett. Saccam, 4 meij 1661, in 't 15 jaer der regeringe van Indick de 4en mane den 6 dach
5. voc 1235, f.563 Translaet missive van Koksinja (Cocxinja) naer casteeel Zeelandia aen den gouverneur Frederick. Uijt het leger in de Pijnappels, 10 meij 1661 in 't 15 jaer der regeringe van Indick de 4en mane den 12 dach
6. voc 1235, f.565 Missive van Frederick Coyett naer Bokkenburgh aen Cocxinja . Casteeel Zeelandia,10 meij 1661.
7. voc f.595-597 Translaet missive van Cocxinja naer casteeel Zeelandia aen Frederick Coyett. Uijt het leger in Bokkenburg, 24 meij 1661, in 't 15 jaer der regeringe van Indick de 4en mane den 26 dach
8. voc 1235, f.597-598 Missive van Frederick Coyett naer Bokkenburgh aen Cocxinja . Casteeel Zeelandia,25 Meij 1661.

Presumably, only No 7 (dated May 24) appeared in Campbell's book. The famed Taiwanese historian Lien-Heng連橫 did include in his 台湾通史Comprehensive History of Taiwan Vol 1 (1920) such a letter, dated 永曆十五年 [the 15th year of Yong-li], the 4th Month, 26th Day (i.e., May 24, 1661), in which Koxinga explained to Coyett why the Dutch must surrender [with only a few hundred men hopelessly surrounded, a shame to lose more lives] and if they did, they could leave peacefully; and those who decided to stay would be well-treated; however, if the Dutch refused to comply, a red flag was to be hoisted as a sign of declaration of war [which the Dutch did]; and Koxinga would be personally watching for the sign on the horseback; the final advice was for the Dutch not to hesitate in choosing life over death:

「執事率數百之眾，困守城中，何足以抗我軍？而余尤怪執事之不智也。夫天下之人固不樂死於非命，余之數告執事者，蓋為貴國人民之性命，不忍陷之瘡痍爾。今再命使者前往致意，願執事熟思之。執事若知不敵，獻城降，則余當以誠意相待。否則我軍攻城，而執事始揭白旗，則余亦止戰，以待後命。我軍入城之時，余嚴飭將士，秋毫無犯，一聽貴國人民之去。若有願留者，余亦保衛之，與華人同。夫戰敗而和，古有明訓；臨事不斷，智者所譏。貴國人民遠渡重洋，經營臺島，至勢不得已而謀自衛之道，固余之所壯也。然臺灣者，中國之土地也，久為貴國所踞。今余既來索，則地當歸我，珍瑤不急之物悉聽而歸。若執事不聽，可揭紅旗請戰，余亦立馬以觀，毋游移而不決也。生死之權，在余掌中，見機而作，不俟終日。唯執事圖之。」

It was apparently a very long and protracted process of negotiation, diplomacy in action in fact, during the siege of Ft Zeelandia.

Interestingly, Lien-Heng also stated "鄭師捕其商人羅谷具，令入城勸降。荷人不從。" [The Cheng army captured a Dutch merchant named Luo-go-ju (original name in Dutch unknown) and ordered him to enter the fort to advise surrender, which was rejected by the Dutch.] There was no mention of Rev Anthonius Hambroek at all.

From Lien-Heng's work, it is clear that sources other than the Campbell tome were available, most likely in the Chinese language. In fact, two of them have been widely cited by other Chinese historians: (1) Jiang Ri-shen江日昇's《台灣外記A Supplemental History of Taiwan》and (2) Yang Ying楊英's《從征實錄Actual Records of the Military Campaigns》:

(1) Jiang江日昇's 台灣外紀Taiwan History was published in 1704. Jiang was from Hokkien. His father 江美鰲 served as a ranking officer in Koxinga'a army until 1677 when he joined the Qing. Jiang's book was based on his father's recall and memoirs of many other actual participants. It described the events from 1621 until 1683, i.e., from the rise of Cheng Zhi-Lung to the end of the Tung-Ning Kingdom. It was written in the style of a traditional Chinese novel albeit with factual contents. Chapter 11, for example, detailed Koxinga's strategy for striking back at an attack mounted by Capt Thomas Pedel's company - this would not have been known to Coyett naturally:

"成功早起，聞安平荷蘭擊鼓吹笛（郎掌號）。功知欲出兵，傅諸將諭曰：「荷蘭無別伎。惟恃火炮而已。黃昭！爾可帶銃手五百名、連環熕二百門[铜发熕是明代的大型火炮，创制于嘉庆年间。重五百斤，发射的弹丸重四斤]，分作三隊，前往鯤身尾。列陣以待；侯他對攻。楊祥！爾可帶藤牌手五百名，從鬼仔埔後繞過鯤身之左，橫沖截殺。蕭拱宸！爾整艍仔船二十隻，看彼隊伍將過七鯤身欲與我們交鋒，隨朗搖旗吶喊駕駛，作過去攻城狀。彼兵見之，自然慌亂，不敢戀戰，破之必矣。」調撥已定，又令諸鎮列陣靜伏守候。荷蘭果行至七鯤身尾，方欲對壘，忽見赤嵌快哨搖動，欲過安平攻城，心遂虛。而楊祥領藤牌又到，跳舞橫沖。荷蘭愈慌，立陣不住，敗下，死者過半，退守其城。"
"Early in the morning, Koxinga heard the fife and drum playing inside Ft Zeelandia. Knowing the Dutch were preparing for an attack, he announced to his generals that, "The Dutch have no other skills than using their firearms, Huang-Zhao: you will lead 500 musketeers [note: these would have been the Black Battalion] together with 200 field canons and split them into three teams to face the advancing Dutch. Yang-Shiang: you will take 500 rattan-shield soldiers and get ready to attack from the left flank. And Hsiao Gung-chen: you will prepare 20 ships with the men on board making movements and noises pretending to attack Zeelandia from Ft Provintia. When the Dutch see this, they will start to panic, too worried about the security of Zeelandia to fight. Then they will be easy to defeat."

After the strategy was set, Koxinga ordered all to stay put. What followed was indeed as predicted, the Dutch infantry could not hold the line as soon as they sensed the imminent attack on Ft Zeelandia. And half of the men were killed before the rest fled back into the Fort.

Coyett's version, however, had 200 of the Dutch musketeers battle against 4,000 Koxinga's elite iron-man corps and the "mad-dog" rattan-shield soldiers, amidst a shower of arrows.

(2) Yang Ying楊英's《從征實錄》was in effect a daily log of Koxinga's military activities from 1649-1662 (note: □ = lost or archaic characters). Yang was a non-combatant officer in the Household Dept whose duty was to faithfully record all the important events:

四月初一日黎明，藩坐駕船即至臺灣外沙線，各船魚貫絡繹亦至。辰時天亮，即到鹿耳門線外。本藩隨下小哨，繇(由)鹿耳門先登岸，踏勘營地。午後，大船齊進鹿耳門。先時此港頗淺，大船俱無出入，是日水漲數尺，我舟極大者亦無□□，□天意默助也。是晚，我舟齊到，泊禾寮港，登岸，札營近街坊梨 □□□□□□□鎮督虎衛將坐銃船札鹿耳門，□□水師甲板，並防北線尾。
In the early dawn hours on the first day of the 4th month, Koxinga arrived at the sandy line of Tayouan Bay with all the other ships following in a single file. By dawn, all had reached the outside of the Lakjemuyse Channel. Koxinga disembarked to examine the camp sites. In the afternoon, all the ships even the large ones entered the Channel unhindered riding the higher than usual high tides. This was a silent help from Heaven. By nightfall, all ships were docked in He-Liao Port and the soldiers encamped on shore. A gunboat was dispatched to guard the Channel and Baxemboy.

是晚，赤崁城夷長貓難實叮發炮擊我營盤，並焚馬□□□。其赤崁街係我民居草厝，藩恐被焚燬糧粟，特差戶都事楊英持令箭委同楊戎政督同援勦後鎮張志官兵看守堵禦，不許官兵混搬，亦不可致紅夷焚燬，候明日分派發給官兵糧食。繇(由)是各街米粟看守完全，無敢侵擾。次日，即令戶都事楊英將街中米粟，一盡分發各鎮兵糧，計勻足半個月。
In the same night, Ft Provintia on order of its Commander fired at our camp site causing some damage to the staple and food storage. Since Sakam District was a residential area with houses built with straws, in order to avoid a firestorm and destruction of food supplies, Koxinga ordered the soldiers to be on guard and to wait until the next morning to distribute the rations. The supplies were in fact secured and the rice and grains, enough to last for half a month on the average, was distributed to the soldiers.

初三日，宣毅前鎮□官兵札營北線尾，夷長揆一城上見我北線尾官兵未備，遣戰將拔鬼仔率鳥銃兵數百前來衝□，被宣毅前鎮督率向敵一鼓而殲，夷將拔鬼仔戰死陣中，餘夷被殺殆盡。
On the 3rd Day, Forward Guards were sent to set up camps at Baxemboy. Coyett, noticing our soldiers were in transit, sent Capt Pedel and a few hundred of his musketeers to ambush us. This was quickly beaten back by the Guards. The Captain was killed together with the rest of the Dutchmen.

初四日，赤崁城夷長貓難實叮以孤城援絕，城中乏水，欲降。先一日，其弟同婦外□遊，被我兵捉獲解藩，藩慰諭□，加意□□送歸赤崁城，與兄實叮道述德意。至是日議降，藩遣番通事吳邁、李仲同楊戎政招諭之，誓無殺害之意。遂赴藩前納降，仍令原駐城中，並厚賜唐山土儀。藩遂遣實叮往臺灣城招揆一來降。令諭招我百姓回家樂業。
On the 4th Day, the commander of Ft Provintia Valentyn was ready to capitulate after the water supply ran out. One day before, his younger brother together with the brother's wife were detained outside the Fort and sent to Koxinga. Koxinga treated them kindly and returned them to the Fort unharmed. In gratitude, Valentyn decided to give up the Fort. An agreement was reached in which Koxinga vowed not to kill anyone. He then sent three officials, bearing gifts from China, to receive the surrender and allowed Valentyn to stay in the Fort. The commander was later invited to go to Zeelandia to ask for Coyett's white flag, so that all citizens could return home and move on with their lives.

初五日，夷王揆一遣我民充番通事胡興同揆一人□□藩說和，藩諭令夷長來見。
On the 5th Day, Coyett's envoy, a Chinese employed as a Dutch consul, came to visit to sue for peace. Koxinga demanded a high ranking representative instead.

初六日，揆一遣夷長□□□等同實叮□□□見，藩賜宴厚禮之，令何廷斌問：『揆一何日出降』？答云：『揆一無降，若藩主兵將抽回，年輸□稅若干萬併土產□□貨隨意聽從，年年照例貢納。至此番大師船隻俱納□□□歸官兵，愿送勞師銀十萬兩』云云，餘無敢言。藩卻之，令發回。
On the 6th Day, Coyett did send a high-level Dutch representative together with Valentyn, both of whom Koxinga had received courteously. At the banquet, Koxinga instructed He Ting-bing to inquire when Coyett would yield, to which the reply was that Coyett would not surrender and that if Koxinga would to withdraw, the Dutch were willing to pay annual taxes and tributes in amounts to be decided, plus an immediate compensation of 100,000 taels of silver and delivery of ships. Koxinga promptly declined the offer and ordered the envoys to leave.

Also, on the account of the sea battle on May 1st, Coyett reported the loss of one large ship [the Hector] with the other three escaping destruction; whereas Yang recorded the capture of two Dutch galleons and three smaller ships.

It is inevitable that historical accounts from the opposing sides differ. This maybe acceptable if the general storylines more or less agree; however, the Koxinga-Coyett conflict based solely on Coyett's narrative is simply too one-sided. The devil is therefore in the details. A far more balanced view of Koxinga's operation obviously is still needed; already a picture of Koxinga's seeking a peaceful resolution begins to emerge.

The Hambroek affair

2011-07-10T22:55:00.026+08:00

Anthonius Hambroek (1607-1661) (in Taiwanese pronunciation, his last name = 范無如區) who arrived in Taiwan in 1648 and started his missionary work under the auspices of the VOC. He was posted to the aboriginal 麻豆社(Mattau) together with his wife, Anna Vincentamoy, and children.

A drama composed by Joannes Nomsz (1738-1803), "Anthonius Hanbroak, of de belegering van Formosa, treurspel [English translation = Anthonius Hambroek, or the Siege of Formosa, tragedy]" published in 1775 had secured for Hambroek his place in history [source: http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Ceneton/NomszHambroek1775.html]. The question is if the events depicted in the drama were true to the history.

The story started by setting the background: Koxinga landed so unexpectedly that he, Hambroek the minister, his wife, son and daughter, and many other prominent Christians, unable to escape to the safety of Zeelandia, fell into his hands. [Note: This probably refers to the fall of Ft Provintia, 270 Dutch including 140 soldiers were captured and later relocated to Sakam.]

In the drama, the scenes took place inside Ft Zeelandia where Hambroeck was sent by Koxinga to deliver the message for Coyett to surrender. There were 7 characters/players in all:

Anthonius Hambroek, Formosa preacher.
FREDRIK CAJÉT [i.e., Coyett], commander in Ft Zeelandia.
FREDRIK CAJET YOUNG, his son.
CORNELIA Hambroek, daughter of the pastor, wife of Fredrik [more to follow]
XAMTI, envoy of the Chinese general Coxinga.
Van den Broek, a captain, friend of Fredrik.
ELIZABETH, vrindin [girl friend] of Cornelia.

In this scene, a grief-stricken Cornelia is being consoled by Elizabeth while Hambroek is making his exit to return to a certain death (with the Coyetts looking on and a map of Ft Zeelandia on the wall):

Since Coyett married his second wife Helena de Sterke in 1658 after his first wife, Susanna Boudaens, passed in 1656, Cornelia might have been married not to Frederic Coyett but to his son, Balthasar. Other sources claimed that two Hambroke's adult daughters were inside Ft Zeelandia when he visited and two younger daughters were held hostages by Koxinga. And of the latter, one later became Koxinga's concubine and the other a subordinate's wife. In contrast, this drama mentioned only one adult daughter [Cornelia] and two other children, a boy and a girl.

Indeed, on May 24, 1661, Rev Hambroek was sent by Koxinga to Zeelandia. At the Senate meeting, the surrender issue was hotly debated. The initial consensus to give in was, however, reversed after a stirring speech by Rev Hambroek. A loose translation below:

"I am perfectly aware that my speech is my own death sentence. However, I will not disregard my duties to God and the Company because of fear. I'd rather risk a thousand times my own and my wife's lives than being exploited by our enemy. Because the cruel Koxinga will make up any excuse to kill all the captured Dutchmen. And since they are already doomed, if we negotiate for their lives out of sympathy, we will have fallen into the enemy's trap and be slaughtered at random. These savage enemy are calculating and sneaky at the same time with no mercy in their hearts. They only want to cheat, rob and massacre the Dutch in their worship of Satan."

Soldiers and civilians alike then vowed to take up arms and defend Zeelandia with all their might [and did]. Having delivered his own instead of Koxinga's message, Hambroek, despite the plea of his daughter (daughters?) and Coyett's advice to do otherwise, decided to return to Koxinga's camp to join his wife and children and face the music, he declared thus:

"Comrades, I will surely die; although, for the sake of you all and those captured by the enemy, I cannot allow myself to be blamed for hiding in the fort to see others sacrificed. May God save our people, He will deliver you from danger. You all must persevere and do not lose your faith."

Our friend Patrick Cowsill has provided this list regarding the aftermath, that

1. He [Koxinga] had all male POWs put to death - true
2. Hambroek was beheaded - true
3. Some women and children were beheaded - true
4. One of Hambroek's daughters was put in Koxinga's harem - doubtful, Hambroek's wife and children appeared to have all been killed (i.e., point 3 above) plus no Cheng household record of such a union could be found
5. The remainder of the women were divided amongst his officers - unconfirmed, maybe true

There were also other loose ends:

(1) Hambroek et al were not executed immediately upon his return from Zeelandia. Rather it was after the Dutch, in captivity, had conspired with the Aborigines to revolt again Koxinga; this was when they were put to death; and

(2) Besides Hambroek, also killed were 牟士Petrus Mus of 諸羅山 and 溫世繆Aronldus Winsmius of 新港/赤崁. And possibly 安信紐Jacobus Ampzingius and 甘比宇Joannes Campius as well [church records indicate that both had died from other causes, however]. All preachers.

This was the unfortunate yet avoidable conclusion of the Hambroek affair as Koxinga's primary objective was the recovery of Taiwan, not one of taking Dutch lives. Hambroek had not only sealed his own fate but also that of his family and others.

In the end, Koxinga entered a peace treaty with Coyett and the Dutch were allowed to depart Zeelandia peacefully. This was not what Rev Hambroek had envisioned. He had predicted, incorrectly, a wholesale massacre if Zeelandia surrendered. Koxinga might have worshiped MaZu but she was hardly Satan incarnate. Without knowing Koxinga's pragmatism, in demonizing Koxinga, Hambroek's speech at the Senate might have been both dramatic and fear-inspiring, but it was quite misguided. And 1,600 Dutch had died by the end of the siege (Feb 9, 1662).

Lady Tung - Koxinga's wife - Part 2

2011-07-08T05:53:00.019+08:00

[A 1676 canon recovered in Kinmoy, was possibly in the arsenal of the army of Koxinga's eldest son, 鄭經Cheng Jing]

According to 明史 the History of Ming [Dynasty], Koxinga had ruled despotically, citing as the evidence was that 75 of his generals and commanders were executed with no mercy, without any regards to their previous merits. This "history" was of course written by Qing historians who must tow the official lines. Indeed, these military men were put to death between the 9th Month of 1649 and the 1st Month of 1661. However, they were justifiably dispatched for cowardice, defeat, retreating before or surrendering to the enemy, or desertion. In addition, there were also 9 who were demoted for lesser offenses and 6 killed for corruption. Often ignored was the fact that, at the same time, more than 300 rewards and promotions, far out-numbering the punishment, had also been distributed. The Qing and the Dutch literature had also attempted to smear Koxinga's name by baselessly accusing him of slaughtering defenseless civilians in fallen cities/towns, exacting excessive taxes from the common people, and committing atrocities against the Aborigines in Taiwan.

Koxinga's close subordinate General 馬信 once counseled that "立國之初, 宜用寬典"[in the beginning of nation-building, it is better not to enforce the law too harshly]. Koxinga had retorted that "立國之初，法貴於嚴，庶不至流弊。俾後之守者自易治耳" [on the contrary, during nation-building, strict laws are needed, to avoid problems for those later to follow and govern]. Some of these killings had fostered resentment that led to defection. The most well-known turncoat was Shi-Lang whose father and brother were both killed by Koxinga, in reprisal for Shi-lang's executing a trusted lieutenant of Koxinga's. Shi-lang later went over to the Qing. He eventually defeated Koxinga's grandson and in essence handed Taiwan over to the Manchurian.

Koxinga's just rule was also aided by his most faithful wife, Lady Tung. She had advised, or more likely, requested that Koxinga order his men not to molest, rob, or rape civilians. This was complied and all violations were again punishable by death. His army was known not to disturb the populace, even known to politely yield the right of way to women and children. Fundamentally, Koxinga's righteousness was shaped in his younger days by the teachings of Confucianism; although, at times, he would go overboard and became overly self-righteous. For example, even adultery carried a death sentence. This intense dislike of mildly aberrant human behavior was to cause severe consequences.

In fact, an incident that was to change the course of the history eventually occurred in Koxinga's household. His eldest son 鄭經Cheng Jing had a secret affair with his own wet nurse and together they had produced a son. The birth of the next heir-apparent was initially greeted with joy by the brand new grandfather, Koxinga. Unfortunately, the wet nurse, regrading herself as the mother of the eventual heir, was quite disrespectful to Cheng Jing's principal wife Lady Tang. Tang's father would not tolerate such insolence and reported the affair to Koxinga stating that, under the Confucian moral codes, the affair was considered a grave violation of the family order, in effect, a form of mother-son incest. Koxinga flew into a rage and ordered death penalty for the wet nurse and the now illegitimate child. 鄭經, however, disobeyed the order. Koxinga then decreed that all three, the parents and the baby, must die. Plus, of all people, that the most revered Lady Tung must pay with her life for not bringing up Cheng Jing properly. Luckily, both time and distance came to the rescue. At that time, Koxinga was finishing up his operation against the Dutch in Taiwan, while the family members were back home in Amoy. Koxinga's lieutenants also refused to carry out what appeared to be an unreasonable command from him. And before any further action could be taken, Koxinga passed away (on the 8th Day of the 5th Month, 1662), thus sparing the lives of all involved.

After a further dispute with Koxinga's brother 鄭世襲 over the inheritance of the Ming-Cheng Kingdom, Cheng Jing eventually assumed the title and with it the rights of 延平王 the Yan-Pin Kingship and became the King of Tung-Ning [Taiwan] for the next 20 years until his death in 1681.

Koxinga, in his short life, never really ruled Taiwan which was in fact re-built by Cheng Jing's administration. With a strong mother, Lady Tung, by his side counseling on most if not all issues, Cheng Jing tried hard to govern and to continue Koxinga's mission of recovering Mainland China. Regrettably, for having accomplished very little of either, he retreated into womanizing, indulging in the pursuits of worldly pleasure that eventually led to his early demise.

Lady Tung was apparently a very demanding mother. After the failed campaign of attacking China in 1676, Cheng Jing was scolded publicly by her: "七府速敗，兩島亦喪，該你無權略果斷，不能任人，致左右各樹其黨耳!" [Losing the battle and the territories was all because of your ineptitude and indecision, you cannot use the right persons for the right tasks only to see them gang up fighting each other!] History recorded that Cheng Jing had remained silent, unable to reply.

In a bloody court drama, after Cheng Jing's death, Lady Tung instructed that his then 17-year-old first-born (the one by the wet nurse) 鄭克臧 be killed and the 12-year-old second son 鄭克塽 installed as the King - so as not to taint the blood line.

This was the beginning of the end of the Ming-Cheng Dynasty.

Lady Tung - Koxinga's wife - Part 1

2011-07-05T20:36:00.022+08:00

[Lady Tung's childhood home in 永寧Yong-Nin Township, near 泉州市Chuan-chou City, Hokkien]

Lady Tung, 董夫人 (1628-1687, maiden name 董友), known to her hometown folks as 董酉姑, was born in 永寧 Township of 石獅Stone Lion City, a niece of 董颺先 Chief of 泰州 Prefecture. She married Koxinga in the spring of 1641 and a mere 5 years later Koxinga started his life-long military campaign on behalf of the Ming Court, against the Qing. Lady Tung was to play a central role not only in Koxinga's life but also in the Ming-Cheng Dynasty established in Taiwan by their eldest son 鄭經 (1642-1681).

By all accounts, Lady Tung was a most capable principal wife of Koxinga. In 1646, she accompanied Koxinga to an outpost and in a demonstration of support, she led the whole household in preparing the uniforms, helmets and armors for the troops and donated her personal jewelries and gems towards the soldiers' pay and rewards.

In the 10th Month of 1650, Koxinga was fighting in the south leaving Lady Tung and family behind in Amoy. Koxinga had entrusted the managment of civil affairs to one of his uncles 鄭芝莞. In early 1651, Amoy was attacked by the Qing army, commanded by 馬得功 General Ma. Koxinga's commanders 阮引 and 何德 unfortunately lost the battle and retreated in defeat. In the ensuing chaos, 鄭芝莞 loaded up a battleship with valuables preparing to flee. Lady Tung took with her only the memorial plaque honoring Lady Weng, Koxinga's mother, and went to the beach where she encountered helmsman 林禮Lin Li. Lady Tung identified herself and asked Lin which was Uncle 鄭芝莞's ship. Mr Lin pointed to the heaviest-laden one in reply, then carried Lady Tung on his back to a small boat and rowed to the warship. Uncle 鄭芝莞 was surprised to see her getting on board and advised that it was a warship unfit for ladies and that Lady Tung would be far more comfortable on another ship complete with servants. Lady Tung, knowing that 鄭芝莞 was attempting to escape with the fortune collected in Amoy, refused to budge. 鄭芝莞 was later tried and executed for gross dereliction of duty.

In the First Month of 1657, Lady Tung hosted a gathering of military families and distributed monetary gifts and clothes as well as generous compensations to the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In 1658, in the First Northern War, Lady Tung and non-combatant family members as usual followed Koxinga into battle when disaster struck. In a huge storm, more than 100 ships sank together with 8,000 men. Koxinga had also lost 3 of his sons and 6 personal lady attendants. Lady Tung again took care of the aftermath thereby restoring the troops' fighting spirits. In 1660, Amoy was attacked by Qing again, this time by 達素Da-Su's army with the participation of turncoats Shi-Lang and Huang-Wu. Lady Tung, the quintessential first lady, calmly gathered and led all the officials and their families to the nearby Kinmoy. With this major worry removed, Koxinga was able to commit his full naval force and beat back the Qing invasion. Having lost 1,000 men in this battle, 達素 committed suicide after returning to his headquarters in Foochow.

On the 23rd Day of the Third Month in 1661, Koxinga departed Kinmoy with an armada of 350 ships and 25,000 men. On the 1st Day of the 4th Month they arrived outside of Ft Zeelandia to begin the war for recovering Taiwan.

[Below: The Tung family history recording the marriage of Lady Tung to Koxinga]

[Re-posted from http://chenghistory.blogspot.com]

Lt Fontaine's head

2011-05-27T08:45:00.004+08:00

[HMS Cockchafer, 1881 - the famed British Banterer-class composite gunboat trapped inside Danshui Harbor during the Battle of Fisherman's Wharf/Sino-French War]

Alexander Frater* reported on March 13, 1885:

"...I went up yesterday to the city of Taipei in accordance with an arrangement made with the Imperial Commissioner to see the heads of some of the Frenchmen that were killed during the fight of the 8th of October last, so as, if possible, to pick out Lieutenant Fontaine's one. Dr Johansen, the medical attendant on this consulate who consented to accompany me, was of the greatest assistance as a scientific man; and I am glad to say that we succeeded in identifying the head, even though it was almost a bare skull. I brought it down to Tamsuy with me, and buried it in the consulate grounds till the views of deceased's family can be ascertained. I shall send a separate report about the recovery of the head to Earl Granville [Note: probably the Foreign Secretary who instructed Frater to recover Lt Fontaine's head] direct..."

Two points: (1) Clearly Liu Ming-chu'an's claim that the heads of the Frenchmen were already buried in Oct, 1884, was not true; and (2) Burial of Fontaine's head in the "consulate grounds" was apparently a temporary measure; although we still do not known what Fontaine's family views were.

*Notes on Alexander Frater: Age on first appointment of China consular service: 22. Father's occupation and place of residence: Assistant city chamberlain, Aberdeen.

He retired as consul at age of 52 due to ill health. Age of death: 53.

Remarks: nominated by Aberdeen University. Previously was War Office clerk.

[This post is based on Fung-yin's new find.]

Frater's report on July 1, 1885

2011-05-19T03:54:00.022+08:00

The following is transcribed from a hand-written report filed by British Consul Alexander Frater describing the end of the Sino-French war in Taiwan:

State of affairs in North Formosa

H.B.M's Consulate,
Tamsuy, 01st July, 1885

Sir,

My last report on the state of affairs in North Formosa was dated the 20th ultimo; and I now proceed to relate the occurrences since then. I have already acquainted you with some of them in private letters.

The British subject, Purse, that served as a gunner in the Chinese Army was sent away on the 26th of June to the mainland. His behaviour had not been good, and Liu Ming-chu'an was glad to get rid of him. He went, I believe, from Amoy to Shanghai. The British pilot, Bentley, who took service with the French left with them when they quitted Kelung, and has gone on to England.

Eight of the deserters from the French army were sent away on the 26th instant on the S.S. "Fokien". Their destination was Hong Kong. Liu Ming-Ch'uan gave each of them $100 (including $25, the value of the passage ticket) as a parting gift. There are seven others in the hands of the Chinese. One of them is employed as a drill instructor and another acts as attendant to Dr Luscher, for whom, by the way Liu Ming-ch'uan is going to build a military hospital. [Note: Luscher was an American M.D. hired by Liu Ming-ch'uan to start a surgical service in the military.]

After the French left Kelung, Liu Ming-ch'uan, knowing that many of the inhabitants had had their houses destroyed by the French appointed a Compassionate Committee to distribute funds among such, and also among persons whose relatives had been killed by the enemy. A proclamation of the 24th of June calls for applications within 20 days. A public notice, of the same date, by the two Imperial Commissioners Liu Ming-ch'uan and Yang Yo-jun invites Chinese to return to Kelung, grants an amnesty to persons who had worked or acted as linguists for the French, provided they had not helped to injure the natives or looted or killed, and gives liberty for the arrest forthwith of anyone found seizing the land or goods of another.

Shortly after the evacuation of Kelung by the French, their cemetery was attacked during the night, and the monuments and wooden crosses were thrown down. Happening to see Liu Ming-ch'uan on the 14th instant, I sopke to him about the outrage and said the French would be sure to be very angry if they heard of it. I advised that he should cause repairs to be made. He replied that he had been told of the occurrence, and had given orders for the cutting in stone of a protective proclamation, a copy of which he showed to me. He added that he had already ordered the tombstones to be put up again, and asked whether I had not heard that his orders had been carried out, to which I could only reply that I had not. The repairs were begun only on the 18th, soldiers being employed for the purpose; but the tombstones were thrown down again during the night. I was in Kelung on the 26th and 27th and visited the Cemetery. The proclamation cut in stone was not there, nor was it on the spot on paper. Two or three of the monuments had been fairly handsome ones and it was sad to see the top portions of them lying broken off. Many of the wooden crosses had been removed, and thin bamboo ones put in their place.

On the 2nd of July the S.S. "Foochow" took a portion of the garrison away from Tamsuy to Taiwanfoo. Some of the hillmen have been disbanded. To prevent disturbances they were marched into the hills and embodied till their monthly pay was due. General Sun changed his residence to Bangka on the 25th instant; and a portion of the Tamsuy force has been sent to Kantow. The torpedoes that were sunk in the entrance to the harbour have been raised, but three or four cannot apparently be found. The land torpedoes have also been dug up. The wires of the submarine ones show much damage. The sunken junks have not been removed but they do not seem to be much in the way of vessels.

[portions omitted here]

Liu Ming-ch'uan wondering at the delay of the French in evacuating the Pescardores, sent General Wu in the Chinese ship of war "Wan Nin Ching" off on the 14th instant to learn the reason. She returned on the 26th. According to her Captain, Admiral Lespes was waiting for a letter from the French Minister. While the "Wan Nin Ching" was at Port Makung the letter arrived, and the evacuation shortly afterwards commenced. One French vessel was left behind to pick up a missing torpedo. The "Wan Nin Ching" on her return to Tamsuy brought the Acting Taotai of Taiwanfoo to conduct the annual literary examinations of this district.

[portions omitted here]

The matter of compensation for the destruction of the mission chapels is being gone into. Dr. Mackay has been away for severl days visiting the chapel sites in company with deputies of the officials.

The payment of a portion of the claim of Douglas Laprail Co. for the destruction of their steam launch near Paksa Point has been offered by the leading men of the neighbourhood. Separate reports about these compensation cases will be duly made by me to you.

Admiral Sir William Dowell visited Tamsuy in H.M's. S'Andrews on the 18th instant.

Your obedient servant,

(Signed) A Frater
Consul

Alexander Frater was based in 紅毛城the Red Fort [Fort San Domingo] in Danshui. The above was just one of his numerous reports. All the major end-games are described in detail in this dispatch: Danshui Harbor pilot Bentley (aka Carozzi) finally went back home to England; all the mines were cleared from Danshui; Dr Mackay was seeking, and eventually received, compensation for his losses; the French departed from Peng-hu; and the warship Wan Nin Ching was in service again. The vandalized French Cemetery in Keelung (image at top) was not kept up until after the Japanese colonized Taiwan in 1895.

[Source of Frater's reports kindly provided by Patrick Cowsill].

The Hunan Braves - 湖南勇

2011-05-01T19:51:00.028+08:00

First, an update from Fung-yin:

自由時報, Liberty Times in Taiwan, reported on September 16, 2009, the potential loss of 2-3,000 precious pieces of historical artifacts:

"紀榮達說，這些文物雖然看起來不起眼，但每件都代表著一段歷史，例如其中有塊清同治年間即設立在省道台二線上的墓碑，該地點正是當年中法戰爭，法國指揮官遭處決之地，因此墓碑可說是這場戰事的見證，後來道路拓寬，竟未再復原。"
"Mr Ji Rong-Da [of Tamkang University] states that even though these artifacts may not look appealing, each one actually represents a part of the history. An example is a tombstone erected in Tong-zi era (1856-75) located on Highway No 2 on the same spot where one French commander was executed in the Sino-French War. This headstone was a silent witness to this battle. Unfortunately, after the highway construction, the stone was never restored."

The "French commander" was apparently Lt Fontaine. We now suspect that this location was also where the 17 French Fusiliers marins were interred. John Dodd did report that they were entombed in the "Downs", i.e., on or near the Danshui Golf Course. And Alexander Frater, the British Consul in Danshui, also mentioned in his reports that the French were buried by International Officer Li at $4 apiece. [Frater info kindly provided by Patrick Cowsill.]

Very little is known about the lives of General Sun Kai-Hua's men, members of the Xiang Army湘軍. According to Frater, 200 of these soldiers were killed and wounded in the Battle of Fisherman's Wharf [the Chinese version put it at 80 dead and 200 wounded]. The wounded each was injured in two or three places testifying to their bravery. Indeed, they were known to the locals as the Hunan Braves湖南勇 - Hunan was where they came from and 勇 has dual meaning, soldier or brave. There are 4 sites in Danshui known to be associated with these gentlemen:

(1) The ancient graves of 湖南勇: This grave site is located at the junction of Chung Cheng East Road and Gang-zen No 2 Street竿蓁二街. There were 6 soldiers, 5 of them from 湖南善化縣: 李有章, 袁致和, 張月升, 胡芳之, and 嚴洪勝, and the 6th 李佑銓 [left] was from 永定縣. They followed General Sun from Hunan to fight the Aborigines elsewhere in Taiwan and were buried in 1881 before the Sino-French war.

(2) In 1979, in an expansion project of the Danshui Golf Course, an old cemetery [the Second Public Cemetery] was cleared to make room. This cemetery contained a mass grave and 200 ancient tombs (dating back 300-400 years). Among them, 31 were identified to be 湖南勇 from 長沙府寗鄉縣 and 29 might have died in the Battle of Fisherman's Wharf [their gravestones were dated 光緒十 or 十一年 (1884 or 1885)].

(3) Across the Danshui River in Bali, in the northern shore village of 頂罟村, there is a 大營公廟 built in 1943 next to the burial ground of an unknown number of 湖南勇 who died from illnesses in ca 1884. It was renovated in 1979 [below] and adjacent to the temple now is an Army Camp.

[Source: 米倉國小 - 蘇秋金 and 林婉蓉]

(4) Danshui 大庄萬善堂: Part of this temple was dedicated by the Danshui Golf Club to honor the 湖南勇 after the removal of their graves from a construction site. There are two headstones [below] inscribed with:

湖南甯鄉縣故勇　黃福堂墓　光緒十五年立 [1889]
湖南故考甫正元　蔣公蘭亭之佳城　光緒十九年立 [1893]

They were probably those who chose to settle in Danshui after the Battle, instead of going back to Hunan, and died later from other causes.
Preservation of the past is not yet a priority in the rapidly expanding Danshui. This will soon change. The establishment of a Peace Memorial in Tamsui Peace Park will now lead the way.

Where were the French?

2011-04-25T07:23:00.006+08:00

In an exhaustive search, Fung-yin has found a report dated September 16, 1895, from the Chief of Taipei County 田中綱常 (1842-1903) to the first Governor General of Taiwan 樺山資紀 (1837-1922). It indicated that while French graves were found in Keelung, there was no trace of them in Danshui. This was apparently in response to an inquiry from the French Government, 11 years after the Sino-French War.

The burial did take place on Oct 8th (or 9th), 1884 and again on Oct 11th, somewhere in Danshui, but not in the Foreigners' Cemetery. John Dodd reported in his book (1888) that on Feb 24, 1885: "It is reported that the Chinese have found the head of the French officer who fell on the Downs in the engagement of the 8^th October last. The head was buried at Banca; the body on the Downs, it is supposed." If true, this would have been Lt Fontaine. The "Downs" was near Danshui Golf Course and Banca is now Wan-hua.

So the exact whereabouts of the 17 French marines who died in the Battle of Fisherman's Wharf remain unknown.

We will continue searching.

Dutchmen in Tainan

2011-04-03T14:08:00.007+08:00

In Koxinga's time, Baxemboy北汕尾(or 北線尾) was a sandbar directly across a narrow channel from Ft Zeelandia. It was where the Dutch infantrymen were annihilated by Koxinga's Iron Man Corps (see previous post: here).

Through the years, the geological changes have greatly altered this area. Initially, the Tai Bay, later the 四草湖, was deep enough for large ships to enter and anchor off Anping. In 1906, the sandy deposits from a huge flood cut off the lake from the sea rendering it nautically useless.

In the Baxemboy area, now known as 四草Shi-chau, a 大眾廟 [Temple of the Public] was built. In 1971, when the temple was being re-constructed, more than 100 sets of skeletal remains with 30+ intact skulls were uncovered. Local legends had long held that this area was an ancient battlefield and a burial ground. And that some of the remains were those of the Dutch soldiers. Indeed, some of the recovered leg bones appeared to be longer than that of the average Han man, suggesting a Caucasian origin.

[Above: the 四草大眾廟]

These bones were carefully cleaned, collected, and stored in large pottery jars in a concrete vault:

[The sign indicates the "Tomb of the Dutch"; these and the picture of the monument below are all from http://www.ttvs.cy.edu.tw/kcc/9310fr/ta5.htm]

And in 2001, a stone monument "海靈佳城" (below) was erected to mark the discovery of the remains. The inscription explains that the skeletons were probably of mixed ancestries. The designation of the Tomb of the Dutch was actually tentative.

On Jan 23, 2003, former PM of the Netherlands, Dr Andreas van Agt visited the tomb following up on a formal invitation. He was very proud that his fore-bearers were brave enough to venture this far from home; although he was also saddened at the same time that these brave souls had lost their lives. He also proposed further study for a historically accurate manner of honoring and interring the skulls and bones. Dr van Agt in fact has paid a second visit on May 31, 2006.

Between Nov 18-29, 2002, an extensive anthropological/biometric examination of the skulls (33 males and 2 females - see one of them above) was performed. It was concluded, and reported in April, 2006, that they were of Southern Island (21) and East Asian (14) origin with none European. The researchers, however, also pointed out that the sample size was small, that DNA analysis would be a better approach, and more important, that the results still could not rule in or out the presence of Dutch bones in the collection.

No additional studies were carried out since.

[Re-posted from http://chenghistory.blogspot.com]

Tamsui Peace Park (TPP)

2011-03-30T09:53:00.004+08:00

Announcement

The 和平公園Peace Park in Danshui is now open to the public:

Please come and visit.

This Peace Park will commemorate the war dead, friend and foe alike, from Danshui's past.

Tsunami津波 hit northeast Japan

2011-03-16T07:57:00.036+08:00

News reports on March 22 show that the 1000-year old 長命穴Longevity Cave - one pass adds three years to your life - has collapsed.

[One of the 260 islets in Matsushima before the tsunami; now most islets and pine trees have been decimated]

On March 11, at 2:47PM local time, Japan is struck by the largest recorded earthquake in its history off the coast of the northeastern city of Sendai [9.0 on the Richter scale]. It surpasses the previously largest 宝永地震 in 1707 [Magnitude 8.6]. Minutes later, the coastal areas were devastated by a huge tsunami津波.

The same epicenter has acted up before, in 869AD [貞観11年] [see the red rectangle in the diagram above]. The tsunami had also left markings in the inland areas.

Matsushima松島, near 仙台市Sendai City, in Miyagi-ken, is one of the three major sights in Japan. Legend has it that the well-traveled poet Matsuo Basho [松尾芭蕉, 1644 – November 28, 1694] was at loss for words, totally captured by its beauty when he first visited it. He left behind an unfinished haiku: Matsushima ya aaa Matsushima ya Matsushima ya松島やああ松島や松島や.

News reports now indicate that the Matsushima Bay was somewhat spared; although East Matsushima appeared to have been hit hard by the tsunami (see photo below taken at 8:58AM on March 12 by a reporter):

Unfortunately, the short Togetsu Bridge渡月橋 linking Oshima雄島 has now vanished; the 252-m red bridge to 福浦島Fukuura Island - the Fukuura Bridge福浦橋 above - is most likely also damaged.

And 瑞巌寺Zui-gan-ji, a national treasure built in 1604-9 by Lord Date Masamune伊達政宗, has been turned into a temporary shelter for some 300 stranded tourists who were later evacuated to Sendai. The temple itself sustained some minor damages. The entry way to the temple is covered by mud, however.

The counterpart of the tastiest oyster that has long disappeared from Danshui can still be found in Matsushima; although after the tsunami, the fate of the famed 松島牡蠣Matsushima kaki, cultivated in the bay remains unclear; the exports seem to have stopped for now.

[Above: the oyster beds and below: THE oyster]

This natural disaster has wreaked havoc in the northeast Japan where entire villages and towns were claimed by the sea. The Fukushima power plant nuclear reactors are still out of control. With 50 heroic workers on the job, that too will end soon, one way or the other. The journey of recovery will be a long and hard one; yet fully recover it certainly will.

Good luck and Godspeed.

Dutch presence in Danshui

2011-03-05T23:45:00.022+08:00

[Santo Domingo, 1170 – August 6, 1221]

Visitors to the Ft San Domingo紅毛城 in Danshui will know that it was initially built by the Spaniards in 1628. The name was in honor of Saint Dominic, founder of the Friars Preachers [the Order of Preachers (OP)], commonly known as the Dominicans. It was later re-built by the Dutch (finishing in 1646) and re-named Ft Anthonio. The fortress was subsequently repaired and occasionally maintained throughout the Ming-Cheng dynasty and the Qing era. The Brits then leased it from the Qing in perpetuity in 1867/8 and the original name in Spanish was officially retained. To the locals, however, the fortress is always the 紅毛城 [literally City of the Red-haired].

On Aug 21, 1642, the Dutch, after an unsuccessful try one year earlier, attacked the Spanish stronghold Ft San Salvador [located on Palm Island or 社寮島, now 和平島] in Keelung again with 690 soldiers on board of 5 galleons and 2 junks. The Spaniards capitulated after 5 days of intense fighting. Keelung was then ruled by Colonial Governor Hendric Harconse and its garrison commanded by Lt Kriec Kenheecq. The Dutch fortified Ft San Salvador and christened it Ft Noort Hollant [North Holland]. Soon after, 50 soldiers were left to guard the fortress with another 80 dispatched to occupy Danshui. In Feb, 1644, in an attempt to conquer the Senar Tribe in Danshui [in the area now 中興里 and 鄧公里] and other Aboriginal tribes in the region, Lt Kenheecq staged a show of force that, however, had backfired resulting in the loss of 21 Dutch soldiers and 49 Han and Aboriginal mercenaries. Kenheecq was replaced by Captain Pieter Boon who arrived from Tayouan [Tainan] with construction materials and laborers to reinforce Ft Anthonio. This was quickly aided by the arrival of 7 war ships with 300 Dutch soldiers and 10 Han mercenaries on board. And after two months of battles, except the Senar tribe, most other tribes in Danshui, Keelung and Ilan submitted to the Dutch rule and were forced to pay enormous annual tributes.

In 1661, Koxinga succeeded in driving out the Dutch from Taiwan; the latter, however, had never accepted the defeat. In 1664, they actually returned to the undefended Keelung to re-build the fortress, arm it with 24 guns, and guard it with 240 men.

In 1665, Cheng Jing鄭經 (1642-81), Koxinga's son and heir, sent a naval force from Tainan to take Keelung. The Dutch responded by increasing the defense stationed in Ft North Holland (to 387 men by 1667). However, with the trade with Foochow cut off by the Qing, the hostility of the locals owing to years of ruthless Dutch rule, and the difficulties in re-supplying from Batavia, the Dutch finally gave up and retreated to their home base in Indonesia in Oct, 1668. Min-Cheng General Huang-An黃安 led a joint navy-army force to Danshui and took over Ft Anthonio. The presence of the Dutch in Danshui/Taiwan finally came to an end. By 1669, the whole northern Taiwan came under the control of the Tung-Ning Kingdom.

In 1681, Ming-Cheng General He-You何祐, based on 紅毛城, was charged with the defense of Keelung and Danshui who, in the end, yielded the command to the Qing in 1683.

Danshui then became increasingly dominated by Han immigrants arriving mostly from Hokkien.

The Cheng Family Temple

2011-03-01T16:20:00.003+08:00

The 延平郡王祠 Koxinga Shrine in Tainan is very well-known. Little realized is that nearby, there is the 鄭氏家廟Cheng Family temple which is located on Chung-yi Road Sec 2 No 36. The stone marker below is, however, a modern addition:

The original name of this temple is 鄭成功祖廟Koxinga's Ancestral Shrine (see the plaque under the eaves in the structure below). It was built by Koxinga's son 鄭經Cheng Jing in 1663. In other words, it only accommodates the Koxinga branch of the Cheng Family. There are no other temples honoring Koxinga's brothers.

At the altar, a wooden statue of Koxinga can be seen:
In the front garden area, a statue of Koxinga and his mother Lady Weng was recently erected. It is a copy of the original located in Koxinga's birthplace in Hirado, Nagasaki. In the inner courtyard, a bamboo tree planted by Koxinga's principal wife Lady Tung has survived to this day:

This temple is now extended to include all Cheng's regardless of their ancestral link - whether it was with Koxinga or his father Cheng Zhi-lung or even no links at all, hence the 鄭氏家廟 designation. A world congress will be held on Nov 6, 2011. All Cheng's are welcome!

[Re-posted from http://chenghistory.blogspot.com]

Tansui Jinja淡水神社

2011-02-14T03:01:00.041+08:00

The long lost history of the Japanese shrines in Danshui is finally restored, thanks to the efforts of Mr N Hirokawa (the photos below are downloaded from his blog site here) and many others.

We now know the very first Shindo shrine in Danshui was the 淡水稲荷社 [Tansui I-nali sha]. 稲荷 [literally rice and lotus] of course refers to agriculture and the shrine seems to trace its origin back to the ancient Qin immigrants to Japan. In any case, the one in Danshui was established on Nov 15, 1906. It can be seen on a small elevation behind the 公會堂 (Ko-kai-do, built by ChoSan's father in 1928) in this photo:

[In the picture are the Harada and the Yamamoto families, the latter then visiting from Japan. And to the left and right are Mr Hirokawa's mother, then a teenager, and grandmother, the manager of 公會堂 from 1930-41.]

The address of the Inali Jinja was 臺北州淡水郡淡水街淡水字砲臺埔二八番地ノ一. On the same plot of land [see sketch below; source: 莊家維(成功大學建築所) 碩士論文《近代淡水聚落的空間構成與變遷--從五口通商到日治時期》], a separate shrine, the 淡水社Tansui-sha, was built and dedicated on Oct 10, 1911 [this according to 淡水郡管內要覽, 1930]. It was only a tiny structure; although it was the predecessor to the far more formal and elaborately built 淡水神社Tansui Jinja.

The construction of the new Tansui Jinja in 油車口 started in 1936. In the photo below, the Japanese immigrants are seen celebrating the arrival of royal timber on a cart:

[This picture was taken at 油車口 near the entry to the now Danshui Golf Course. In it, Mr Kinoshita Seigai (one with the white hat next to the drummer) and Mr Hirokawa's father (one with the megaphone on the cart) can be readily identified. On the right is of course Danshui River and Guan-yin Mountain.]

This shrine honored 北白川宮能久親王, 明治天皇, 大物主命, and 崇徳天皇, built in the classical Japanese style with a roofed gate, roofed walls, and a court yard in front of the main hall :

This complex was destroyed in 1974 to make room for Taipei County Martyrs' Memorial台北県忠烈祠. Only the stone steps and the foundation survived.

The shrine was completed on March 11, 1939, and consecrated on June 1, followed by public celebrations. Needless to say, all Japanese residents young and old were on site to take part. The following are the photographic records of the evening of the shrine dedication (immediate below) and the celebratory gathering of Tansui citizens:

[Below: Mrs Harada, Mr Hirokawa's grandmother in ceremonial garment/headgear, posing next to one of the two isidoros in front of the torii, at the entry to the Jinja.]

[Above: In subsequent years, Mr Hirokawa as a child, was carried by his Dad to participate in the ceremonies for students.]

The 1900 census showed that 161 Japanese families then residing in Danshui with 360 males and 224 females (total=584). There were 1,098 Taiwanese families at the same time with 5,500 men and women. In other words, approximately 10% of Tansui-jin were originally from mainland Japan. It is unclear what the ratio was in latter years; although the Nihon-jin were certainly in the minority. By 1946, all Japanese were gone and with them a chapter of the immigrant history of Danshui.

Koxinga and Manila

2011-02-07T06:07:00.012+08:00

[Above: The vision of Blessed Guala, by Cosimo Gamberucci, from the Great Cloister of Santa Maria Novella, the principal Dominican church of Florence, ca. 1580]

History is replete with what-if's. For example, what if Koxinga had lived long enough and conquered Manila? What would the history of SE Asia be?

According to 臺灣通史[The Comprehensive History of Taiwan] by the great historian Lien-Heng [連橫 (1878-1936)]:

"初，羅馬神父李科羅在廈傳教，成功禮之，延為幕客。當是時，華人之在呂宋者數十萬人，久遭西人苛待。諸將議取呂宋為外府。成功使李科羅至馬尼拉，說呂宋總督入貢，而陰檄華僑起事，將以舟師援之。事洩，西人戒嚴，集兵馬尼拉，毀城裂砦，以防竊踞。而華人已起矣，鏖戰數日夜，終不敵，死者數萬人。或駕小舟至臺灣，多溺死。成功撫之，而呂宋仍俶擾，又慮鄭師往討，乃命使者隨李科羅乞和。諸將欲問罪，未出師，而成功病革矣。"
"At first, Roman Catholic priest 李科羅 (Victorio Rici, or in Spanish: Victorio Riccio, 1621-1685) was preaching in Amoy. Koxinga treated him with respect and invited him to be a consul. At that time, there were several hundred thousand Chinese residing in Luzon who had long been mis-treated by the Spaniards [Note: especially under the ruthless administration of Governor General Diego Fajardo Chacón, from 1644 to 1653)]. Koxinga's generals proposed that Luzon be annexed. Koxinga therefore sent Rici to Manila to demand the Spanish Governor General to pay tributes but also secretly to plot a revolt by the Chinese - to be supported by warships and soldiers from Taiwan. The plan was exposed, however, and the Spaniards heightened their defense and dispatched soldiers [Note: from Mindanao Island] to destroy Manila to avoid capture/occupation. By then, the Chinese were in uprising who fought in pitched battles for several days but failed in the end. Tens of thousands were killed. Some escaped on little boats and sailed to Taiwan with many drowned on the way. Koxinga seized the opportunity to pacify the Spaniards when Luzon was still in turmoil. The Spaniards were also worried that Koxinga might attack, so an emissary traveled with Rici to Taiwan to sue for peace. Koxinga's general staff preferred punitive actions; however, before the invasion could be carried out, Koxinga passed away [Note: on July 23, 1662]."

The key player in this drama, 李科羅 Victorio Rici was a member of 利瑪竇's extended family [Note: 利瑪竇 (Italian name: Matteo Ricci, 1552-1610), a Jesuit from Italy who travel to China to preach in 1583 and stayed for life)]. Fr Rici was born in S. Maria a Cintoia of Florence and had studied in Fiesole and Rome. In 1654, he went from Manila to Amoy to build a Dominican Church and administer to Koxinga's soldiers.

In 1662, Fr Victorio Riccio was appointed the ambassador to Manila and on May 5th, he practically handed an invitation to surrender from Koxinga to the Spanish Governor General demanding for the submission of the Spanish Colony. The document reads as follows:　

「大明總統使國姓爺寄馬尼拉總督曼利克。特。喇喇之宣諭：
A directive from Koxinga of the Great Ming to Governor General Manrique de Lara of Manila:

承天命而立之君，萬邦咸宜效順朝貢，此古今不易之理也。可惡荷夷不知天則，竟敢虐我百姓，劫奪商船形同盜賊，本當早勒水師討伐。然仰體天朝柔遠之仁，故屢寄諭示期彼悔罪退過，而彼等遇頑成性，執迷不悟，邀予震怒，遂於辛丑四月率水師親討，兵抵台灣捕殺不計其數，荷夷奔逃無路脫衣乞降，頃刻之間，城池庫藏盡歸我有，倘彼等早知負罪屈服，豈有如此之禍哉。
...I (Koxinga) have now driven the Dutch out of Taiwan. Numerous Dutchmen were killed for unwise resistance. If they had capitulated sooner, they would not have suffered such a disastrous fate...,

你小國與荷夷無別，凌迫我商船，開爭亂之基。予今平定台灣，擁精兵數十萬，戰艦千艘，原擬率師親伐。況自台至你國，水路近捷，朝發夕至；惟念你等邇來稍有悔意，遣使前來乞商貿易條款，是則較之荷夷已不可等視，決意姑赦爾等之罪，暫留師台灣，先遣神甫奉致宣諭。倘爾及早醒悟，年俯首來朝納貢，則交由神甫履命，予當示恩於爾，赦你舊罰，保你王位威嚴，並命我商民至爾邦貿易；倘或你仍一味狡詐，則我艦立至，凡你城池庫藏與金寶立焚無遺，彼時悔莫及矣。荷夷可為前車之鑑，而此時神甫亦無庸返台，福禍利害惟擇其一，幸望慎思速決，毋遲延而後悔，此諭。
...You (the Spaniards) are no different from the Dutch, from another tiny state. In Taiwan, I have in my command several hundred thousand soldiers and one thousand warships. I was about to invade Manila; however, in view of your emissary arriving to beg for trade treaties, a behavior different from the Dutch, I am therefore empowering Father Rici to ask that you submit to my rule and pay yearly tributes. If there is any trickery on your part, my ships will quickly arrive and destroy you totally, just like what I have done to the Dutch. By then it'll be too late. The choice is yours...

永曆十六年三月七日　　(Dated and signed by) 國姓爺[Koxinga]」

The Spanish Governor General of the Philippines Islands was Sabiniano Manrique de Lara who succeeded the despotic Diego Fajardo Chacón and ruled between July 25, 1653 and Sept 8, 1663.

This was a story with no ending. Fr Victorio Rici spent the rest of his natural days in the Chinese District in Manila and died there peacefully.

[Re-posted from http://chenghistory.blogspot.com]

The Yuanshan Zoo 圓山動物園

2011-01-29T09:01:00.027+08:00

The Taipei Municipal Zoo or "Muzha Zoo木柵動物園" was actually relocated from Yuanshan in 1986. The original Yuanshan Zoo圓山動物園[Maruyama Zoo] was established in 1914 by a 70-person touring circus from Japan. It was taken over by the Colonial Gov't in 1915 and quickly became a very popular site with more than 800 visitors on any given Sunday. This Zoo housed about 70 species of mammals, birds, and reptiles. The picture above shows one of the main attractions, an Indian elephant named Malan [note: another, Lin Wang, was added in either 1952 or 1954].

Near the bottom of the water buffalo page of Taipics.com, there are photos of a 大猩猩 [Gorilla gorilla] (one of them is shown below), the then resident celebrity of Yuanshan Zoo. This majestic looking gorilla was electrocuted in 1945 when the Americans came to bomb Taipei, allegedly to prevent it from escaping from the Zoo and mauling hapless citizens in its path. Unfortunately, the American bombers never did hit this area, so the gorilla (and two lions) died for nothing. It was made into a ferocious fully-standing specimen-display that had remained a source of fascination for generations of children.
Then there was this exotic "fire-eating bird食火鳥", the most dangerous bird in any zoo, that had somehow avoided the euthanasia and survived the war. For illustration purposes, a representing photo here:
The fire-eating fame of 火喰鳥 (hi-ku'i-tori) originated from 1778 when the strange flight-less bird arrived in Nagasaki, Japan, on a Dutch merchant ship. The painting above depicts a Dutchman in striped pants holding a piece of flaming charcoal for the bird, called Cassowary, to eat. No one has ever witnessed such an event at the Yuanshan Zoo or elsewhere, however. The bird apparently eats fruits, insects, and small animals; everything except fire. Many of us still feel duped.

There was also an albino Persian cat with heterochromia (different eye colors). It lived by itself in a tiny wooden cage. Again, for illustration:
Alexander the Great (356-323BC) also had heterochromic eyes, probably from injury to the sympathetic nerve along the external carotid artery when his dad, Philip II of Macedonia (382-336BC), or someone picked up Alex the toddler by his head and inadvertently stretched the young neck. This type of nervous damage prevents proper pigmentation of the iris resulting in a blue eye on the afflicted side.

The Zoo was renovated and further expanded in the 1950s. The marketing policy of adding special shows and exhibits continued for 30 years until 1979.

On September 14, 1986, the zoo animals were moved, amidst great fanfare, through the streets of Taipei to the present site in 木柵.

清水祖師廟 Clear-Water Zu-Shi Temple in Danshui

2011-01-16T23:01:00.026+08:00

This artistically re-rendered photo, courtesy of Mr Sam Wu, shows the work by master potter 陳天乞 - colorful examples of many more that adorn the 清水祖師廟 in Danshui. The resident deity in this temple 清水祖師 is also known as the 黑面落鼻祖師 or the most revered black-faced nose-dropping master. He was 陳應 (1044-1109), a monk-physician originally from Hokkien.

His dark face was supposedly from suntan from lifelong outdoor charity work (one of many versions). The nose-dropping legend of this statue actually abounds. It is a warning sign that appears whenever there is an impending disaster. The most famous episode was the earthquake in 1867 (on the 23rd day, 11th month, lunar calendar) that had leveled 石門Shi-men (north of Danshui) yet spared all residents. They happened to be parading 清水祖師's statue in an open field when the nose detached and the ground shook soon after.

The nose piece can only be re-attached by using ashes from burned incense mixed with water [see close-up above]. And no amount of human force can detach the nose. During the Japanese rule, the town folks worrying about an imminent epidemic had held a pre-emptive parade for 清水祖師 to patrol and bless Danshui. It was in violation of the Shindoism only law at that time, so the procession was halted by police chief 佐藤金丸. This was when the nose miraculously dropped. After re-attaching it, Sato was challenged to yank it off. He couldn't with all his might, the parade was therefore allowed to continue. Sato's successor 清水勉治 was also taught the same lesson. Cynics might argue that these two policemen were simply humoring Danshui-ren - to avoid a popular uprising. We of course know better.

During the Sino-French war when the French came to invade Danshui, 清水祖師 together with MaZu, Guanyin and Royal Lord Su, divinely intervened. For which, a wooden plaque "功資拯濟" was granted by Emperor Guan-Xu. To house this royal gift, a new temple must be built, so the statue of 清水祖師 was temporarily moved to the 清水祖師廟 in 艋舺 (Manga, now Wanhua). Unfortunately, the folks in Manga later refused to return the statue, even fabricated a duplicate to swindle Danshui-ren. These had resulted in lawsuits during the Japanese era. It was eventually decreed that the two towns settle through time-sharing. However, after the war, Danshui-ren discovered that the shared statue was again a fake.

Historically, Danshui-ren were in mutually beneficial collaboration with people from Manga. The town history, however, had also recorded disdainfully that during the Sino-French war, a bunch of unruly Manga youth came and attacked Christians in Danshui. Dr George Leslie Mackay and his family had to flee to Hongkong as a result.

The stories of 清水祖師 are still growing even today. The most recent one was about an architect commissioned for a renovation project. He arrived at the temple with blueprints in hand late one night for a meeting with the caretakers, only to find that all the gates were locked shut. After knocking on the doors, a booming voice inside told him to slip the blueprints under the doors. He did so unsuspectingly and found out on the next day that no living person was at the temple since the previous evening.

[Above: Two more-recently added ishidoros guard the entry to the temple, replacing two stone lions from the olden days.]

For many young Danshui-ren drafted to serve in the military, wearing magic spells available from the temple is a must. At least one kid credits his survival from a bad accident to the protection by 清水祖師.

Every year on the 6th Day of the 5th Month, lunar calendar, Danshui celebrates 清水祖師's re-designated birthday (it should really be the 6th Day of the 1st Month - minor details really). This is also a great excuse for Danshui families and friends to get together and have a feast.

Mark that on your calendar and come to join the festivities and witness one of the most enduring legends in northern Taiwan:

A poem by Du-Fu杜甫

2011-01-13T13:23:00.005+08:00

杜甫 (712-770AD), a most famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, is also well-known and accepted [受容] in Japan. The style of his poetry heavily influenced the 五山文学 of the Japanese 南北朝 Period (1334-1393) and later the work of haiku master Matsu-o Ba-sho松尾芭蕉 (1644-1694).

The poem above 春望 [Anticipating Spring] by 杜甫 was calligraphically reproduced in the 行書 style by Mr 廣川研一 [source: http://www.shipboard.info/blog2/], a long-time resident and teacher of Danshui, who was appointed the Principal of 三芝San-Zhi Public School on May 5, 1944, and oversaw the transfer of school properties before repatriation to Hiroshima in 1946.

War time chaos is a recurring theme in Asian literature. Du-Fu was lamenting (translation by Eyedoc):

Nation in ruins yet mountains and rivers remain
Spring sees city deep in overgrown weed and trees
Tears of sadness splash onto flowers
Crowing birds disturb a reluctant farewell
In three months of continuous war
A letter from home is worth 10 thousand pieces of gold
Stroking graying hair shortens it so
Hairpins have nowhere to anchor any more

This was also what was happening in 1944-1945, in Danshui and in Taiwan.

春望 and its Japanese version:

　　国破山河在　　　国破れて山河在り
　　城春草木深　　　城春にして草木深し
　　感時花濺涙　　　時に感じては花にも涙を濺ぎ
　　恨別鳥驚心　　　別れを恨んでは鳥にも心を驚かす
　　烽火連三月　　　烽火　三月に連なり
　　家書抵万金　　　家書　万金に抵る
　　白頭掻更短　　　白頭　掻けば更に短く
　　渾欲不勝簪　　　渾て簪に勝えざらんと欲す

Taiwan Jinja 台灣神社

2011-01-05T21:56:00.030+08:00

Most old-time residents of Taipei remember that the best known hotel in the city, the Grand Hotel 圓山大飯店, was built in 1952 on the same site where 台灣神社 was once located. This and the Tainan Jinja were the two highest level shrines that honored 北白川宮能久親王, among other major Japanese deities. [Note: The Grand Hotel was rebuilt in 1973 into a yellow and crimson 14-story palace which was damaged by fire in 1995; it underwent extensive renovation and re-opened for business in 1998.]

A huge collection of pictures of 台灣神社 can be found in the Taipics.com website. Two of them are shown below, you can see the torii (gateway to the jinja grounds), the bridge over Keelung River - the 明治橋 (中山Chung Shan Bridge after the war), and the street leading up to it - the 敕使街道 (later the Chung Shan N Road):

To the left of the taxis was the old Yuan-shan Zoo. Notice the bike riders traveled on the left side of the street.

And a bird's eye view of the whole complex is captured in this painting:The shrine complex was further expanded in the 1940s. In 1942, the 台灣護國神社 (Taiwan Gokoku Jinja) was built on the 劍潭 side. This would become the Martyrs' Shrine after the war. The original Jinja seen above was promoted to the palatial status to 台灣神宮 in 1944, and a new hall was constructed next to the old jinja. It was to be dedicated in Dec of the same year; instead, it burned down shortly before on Oct 25, when an airliner crashed near it while trying to land in the Matsuyama 松山Airport. Many would see this as an omen foretelling the downfall of the Japan Empire. It was never rebuilt and Japan surrendered 10 months later. This site is now a radio station.

The imposition of the Shindoism onto [some would argue that this was accepted voluntarily by] the Taiwanese went into high gear in the 1940s and the shrines served as the spiritual centers. Worshiping at the shrines was integrated into school activities. Many had their wedding ceremonies conducted at these shrines. They were also the favorite sites for the touring public. After the war, most jinjas were dismantled. The recent interests in preserving these shrines and artifacts (e.g., stone lions, bronze horses, and stone lanterns - ishidoros) came from the realization that the Japanese did share a common past, however briefly, with the Taiwanese. Marc of Taipics.com has sent this photo of an ishidoro on display at the Flowers Expo (for more, see here) - a remnant of the past except the light bulb, a gratuitous addition:

There are strict rules, etiquette and proper attires for attending ceremonies at Taiwan Jinja:

Some photo records are highly personal. Here we have three generations of Tansui-jin/Danshui-ren celebrating the wedding of Mr Hirokawa and his bride, Miss Harada:

[This photo of 廣川 bride and groom (couple in front center), family and guests was taken on May 20, 1939, at Taiwan Jinja 台灣神社 - kindly provided by Hirokawa's son.]

The groom, Mr Hirokawa, had taught at 淡水公學校 [now Danshui Elementary School]. Among the guests were the School Principal, Mr Matsuda松田 (right-hand side of groom) and the Mayor of Tansui/Danshui, Mr Nakahara中原 (second from right, front row).

The eagles of Danshui and more

2010-12-22T13:00:00.017+08:00

Contributed by Sam Wu

There are 400-450 species of birds in Taiwan that include those migrating from northern Asia either arriving in Taiwan for the winter or stopping over, on their way to, e.g., Indonesia.

There was a time when the sky above Danshui River was teeming with eagles hunting for fish [four of the most numerous: Chinese goshawk, gray-faced buzzard eagle, Formosan crested goshawk, and serpent eagle]. Now, with their winter nesting sites crowded out by humans in 觀音山 area, you are lucky to spot one or two on a good day.

In the wetlands and forests, however, a few other species have apparently survived and done well:

[Above and below: 鷺鷥white Egret, commonly sighted in riversides and rice paddies, strolling in lady-like grace; there are 6 species of egrets in Taiwan]

[Above and below: 紅臉水雞Common Moorhen found in 紅樹林, known to fuss over their broods]

[Below: 白頭翁 Chinese Bulbul - noisy residents of the woods]

[Above: a Red-faced 番 duck/Muscovy, known to chase after kids]

[Above: a 斑點鶇 Dusky Thrush, most likely from E Siberia]

[Above: a 白腹鶇 Pale Thrush, another visitor from Northeast Asia]

[Above: a 夜鷺 Night Heron - hunts at night often at fish farms much to the chagrin of the farmers]

[Above: a 藍磯鶇 Blue Rock-thrush and below: a very rare migratory 藍尾鴝Red-flanked Bluetail known as "rooftop violinist" for its trilling songs]

[Below: a 樹鵲 Himalayan Tree Pie - usually seen in groups, large and loud residents of parks in Taipei]

[Above: a 爪哇八哥White-vented Myna, this one in a bamboo bush in Danshui; and below: a 五色鳥Muller's Barbet, a loner with feathers of 5 different colors]

[Above: a 翠鳥Kingfisher, aka a flying jewel; and below: a 黃尾鴝Daurian Redstart, another visitor from the north]

The good news is, with planned conservation in Danshui, Guan-du and Taipei, these beautiful birds seem to be making a comeback. We hope the magnificent eagles of 觀音山, all 10 species of them do as well.

Koxinga's sister (Part 1): Ursola de Bargas

2010-12-17T08:35:00.010+08:00

[Koxinga's birthplace in 平戶Hirado in Nagasaki - known as 兒誕石]

According to the writing of Franciscan missionary to China, Fr Antonio de Santa Maria Caballelo (1602-1669), 鄭芝龍Cheng Zhi-lung's daughter married one of the sons of Mr Manuel Bello, a Portuguese resident of Macau. Another Franciscan, Fr Bonaventura Ibanez (1610-1691) also reported that Bello and his son Antonio Rodrigues, both of whom Macau-born Portuguese came to call on him in 安海An-Hai. And during the visit, Rodrigues had described his wedding to Lord Cheng's daughter, Ursola de Bargas, in Macau.

This is the little known chapter of the Cheng family history. Indeed, Ursola was Koxinga's sister from the same Japanese mother, Lady Weng [翁夫人 - 田川松Takawa Matsu]. Her Chinese/Japanese name remains unknown.

鄭芝龍 had never forgotten this branch of his family. In May, 1630, after several unsuccessful attempts through emissaries, 鄭芝龍 finally sent 鄭芝燕 his own brother to hand-carry a letter to the Daimyo of Nakasaki asking that his family members be released. In the Tokukawa Period, however, no Japanese citizens were allowed to emigrate. Outraged, Lord Cheng dispatched a fleet of 10 warships to Japan threatening retaliation. After some negotiation, only the then 7-year-old Koxinga was let go. Lady Weng stayed behind to take care of her second son 田川七左衛門, then barely one year old. Apparently, a daughter was also left behind with the mother.

Perhaps to honor 鄭芝龍, his daughter was brought up a devout Christian [even though Lady Weng was not in this faith]. She arrived in Macau with other Christians in 1636 to escape the religious persecution then the rage in Japan. She was evidently quite well cared for by the Portuguese.

[The St Paul Cathedral in Macau built in 1582-1602, destroyed in 1835 by typhoon and fire]

Upon learning the arrival of his daughter in Macau, Lord Cheng demanded the custody which the citizens of Macau refused citing that Cheng (known in Macau as Nicholas Iquan) was no longer a practicing Christian and that his daughter, if returned to China, would be residing in a land with no churches. Lord Cheng initially threatened to bring 500-1,000 warships to attack Macau but relented later.

[Macau, ca 1640]

The father and daughter were finally united in 1646. This was because Lord Cheng, instead of taking hostages, had taken very good care the crew of a Portuguese ship that had sunk in his territory. In gratitude, the Portuguese in Macau decided not to block the re-union any longer. At the same time, Lord Cheng made a promise to his daughter that he'd build a church to accommodate her and other Christians. It was indeed built inside his 138-acre seaside compound in An-Hai in 晉江. This cathedral was decorated with icons and portraits of Jesus, Virgin Mary, and Christian saints complete with preaching and regular services. This was also where the two aforementioned Franciscans met up with Ursola and her husband Antonio Rodrigues.

After 鄭芝龍's surrender, the couple returned to Macau in 1655 when Koxinga decided to fight against the Qing and restore the Ming. He burned down the compound with everything in it to re-group in Amoy. It is known that Rodrigues became a sea captain at least until 1678.

For two long years, Mr Manuel Bello stayed with his in-law Lord Cheng when the latter was imprisoned by the Qing. For unknown reasons, Bello was spared the death sentence when Lord Cheng together with 10 immediate family members were executed in 1661.

[Re-posted from http://chenghistory.blogspot.com]

For part 2, see http://chenghistory.blogspot.com/2010/12/koxingas-sister-cheng-wan.html

The rest of Danshui

2010-12-11T08:25:00.020+08:00

Besides the hustle and bustle of the 老街Old Street, there are many tourist attractions in Danshui, e.g., the Little White House, Ft Santo Domingo, Fisherman's Wharf, Hobe Gun Fort, Danshui Presbyterian Church, etc. There are many lesser-known yet no less important sites such as the three major temples, 媽祖宮, 龍山寺, and 清水祖師廟, plus the 蘇府王爺廟 [described in the last post]. Then there are the always overlooked sites, for example, 淡江中学Tamkang High School and the nearby Foreigners' Cemetery, the Taipei County Martyrs' Memorial, etc. Here we'll offer a quick introduction to these sites and more:

Tamkang High School was started in 1882 by Dr George Leslie Mackay as 牛津學堂the Oxford College. It was formally established and moved to the present site by his son 偕叡廉博士 in 1925. This is the gym, at the end of a long walkway from the front gate:
The walkway is paved with red bricks with some old "撒木耳煉瓦會社Samuel and Samuel Co" bricks embedded, most likely salvaged from other buildings from the 1920s.
Inside the gym, you'll see the portraits of two boxing champions, [l] Jake Martinez (1955-56) and [r] Juan Lazcano (1950-53) on the wall:
During the infamous 228 Incident (1947), one of the students was shot and killed near the post office on Chung Cheng Road. The school principal and two teachers were also arrested and murdered. Here is a memorial on campus:
There are also other landmarks, e.g., the first rugby field in Taiwan, the bell tower, and the 八角耬 (for more, see here by Patrick Cowsill). And near the gym, there is a Mackay family cemetery and next to it, the Foreigners' Cemetery (below) where the 17 heads of French fusiliers marins from the Sino-French war in 1884 might have been buried:
Below is the original Oxford College, located within 真理大學 that used to be where the British Consulate was. The land was leased from the Qing in perpetuity until in the late 1970s when it was sold to the university:
Across the street from 真理大學 is of course the 紅毛城Fort Santo Domingo. Going down a steep slope from this area, you'll run into Chung Cheng Road again. And a short distance going north, you'll come across the tree-shaded boulevard into the Danshui Golf Course, famous since the 1920s.

Walking up the blvd, before going into the Golf Course itself and on the right-hand side, there is a footpath leading up to a new addition, the 一滴水記念館:
It is an old house from 福井Fukui Prefecture in Japan, originally built by 水上勉's father. It was dissembled in Japan and re-constructed in Danshui by volunteers, now a cultural exchange center and a library housing the entire work of 水上勉 and 陳舜臣 [both of whom novelists from Japan]:
On the left side of the entry way, there are the well-visited 滬尾砲台Hobe Gun Fort (built by 劉銘傳) and the usually ignored 台北縣忠烈祠Taipei County Martyrs' Memorial.
Some maybe interested to know that this memorial was built to symbolize the victory over the colonial Japan. This Chinese gate (牌坊, above) used to be a Japanese-style roofed gate (only the foundation now remains; the 2 Chinese style stone lions maybe a post-war addition). And the memorial hall was built on the site where the 淡水神社Tansui Jinja was originally located:
223 individuals plus one group of 72 are commemorated in this hall that include the defender of Danshui during the Sino-French war, 孫開華. The group of 72 is first on the list - KMT revolutionary martyrs already memorialized in Canton, China. Inexplicably, the list also contains the names of three Qing officials who vowed to fight and die for Taiwan but ran back to China instead when the Japanese came to take over Taiwan in 1895.

And back to the soon to be totally altered 重建街 area, here is the famed western style 紅樓 (the Red Castle) owned by the 洪Hong family, now a cafe:
It has appeared in many famous paintings of old Danshui. And right below it, in front of the now demolished 白樓 (the White Castle) is the China Berry tree long associated with 木下靜涯Kinoshita Seigai:
Danshui is rapidly changing into a town of all tourism all the time. And in the back side of Danshui MRT Station, the landfill project continues:
Eventually another tourist bridge that goes nowhere similar to the one in Fisherman's Wharf will be built here. The landfill narrows the span of the river that is certain to impede the flow of water from upstream. It will be interesting to see if Taipei is flooded when the next typhoon hits.

淡水蘇府王爺廟Temple of Baron Su in Danshui

2010-12-05T07:29:00.030+08:00

An interesting sign here says: "For the safety of the tourists, fishing is forbidden in the Golden Coast sight-seeing rest area":

[The title reads in the wrong direction, too. And the bird? A 鷺鷥white egret looking for fish.]

It is unclear why fishing should endanger the tourists. For us the locals, simply:
Fishing in raincoat, knee-deep in water, that's a tradition.

And speaking of tradition, near this fishing spot in 油車口, you'll find a tiny temple dedicated to Baron [Royal Lord] Su, originally constructed in 1719, totally re-built in the 1960s:

This 蘇府王爺廟 of Danshui has spawned many more others all over Taiwan. As MaZu, Baron Su is also a supernatural guardian of the fishermen. He specializes in protecting them from infectious epidemics. Su was presumably a Cantonese, in fact a Ming Dynasty mandarin who had governed 7 provinces in China. It is unknown how he became a minor Taoist god. In the Taiwan/Hokkien custom, when something miraculous happened and the performer of the miracle appeared in some VIP's dreams to claim the credit, the dreamer(s) would build a temple to honor the instant deity. Then the legends grew and the followers came, etc. No one knows what Su's inaugural miracles were, by the time he was enshrined in Danshui, town folks were convinced that he had saved Danshui from the plague, cholera and the like.

However, there is something unique in the worship of Baron Su. Each year on the 9th Day of the 9th Month of the lunar calendar, an elaborate ritual known as 送王船 [sending-off of the Baron's ship] is conducted. In it, a huge ship built of paper and sticks was first buried in fake money and then set on fire. The purpose is allegedly to cast off evil spirits associated with the epidemics. And the money is for tricking these spirits into boarding the ship. The video below records one such event:

This temple is next to the entry way to Danshui Golf Course, also where the Hobe Gun Fort and the Martyrs' Memorial are located. In the Sino-French war in 1884, Qing soldiers had encamped in this area as well. And they came to Baron Su's temple to worship and pray.

The prayers did not work for several who were executed for cowardice - retreating in the face of the enemy - right outside the temple. Most, however, claimed that Baron Su, as other major deities in Danshui, had also helped them defeat the French. A wooden plaque, "威靈赫濯", was installed by General 章高元 in gratitude:
After the Battle of Fisherman's Wharf, an unknown number of Qing soldiers chose to stay and married local women. They settled mostly in the 油車口 area. One of them was murdered by his wife in a well-known scandal.

One wonders if the sending-off of the paper ship every year may not be a disguise of these Qing soldiers' desire to go home to the other side of the Taiwan Strait.

Note: The above is based on the original legend that a statue of Baron Su was salvaged from a ship sailing from Hokkien and sank in a storm near Jin-shan. The statue was preserved in a house and later in the temple in 油車口. This temple now seems to worship not one but a group of three Hokkienese barons, Nos 1, 2 and 3. When and why this change remain to be investigated.

龍目井Wells of Dragon's eyes

2010-11-29T01:28:00.018+08:00

All regime change fundamentally means property transfer and land re-distribution, often by force, sometimes by newly enacted laws. This has occurred many times in the past 400 years in Taiwan. Danshui is certainly no exception. Unfortunately, this was also why the once-thriving British shipping establishment disappeared - under the weight of the new laws, and with it, the start of the decline of Danshui's status as the most prominent international seaport of Taiwan.

In the beginning, "龍目井,烽火街 and 砲台埔" together constituted an area that covered the present-day Shan-min Street三民街 all the way to Fort Santo Domingo紅毛城. In the Qing era, in the 龍目井 district, there were two wells that provided water for local residents, hence the name. During the Japanese colonial period, this was where the elementary school teachers and their families lived, in single-story Japanese style houses built by 中野金太郎Nakano Kintaro who acquired the land from the 學租財團 in 1912 which in turn obtained the property rights from its previous owner 太古洋行 [the Douglas Shipping Co].

Douglas Shipping Company was founded by a Scot, Douglas Lapraik, in Hongkong in 1863. In 1871, the company established regularly scheduled routes (with 3 ships, sailing once every two weeks) between Hongkong, Swatow, Tainan, Danshui, and Amoy. It was headquartered in Danshui on lands leased in perpetuity from the Qing Gov't - with 3 large warehouses, docks, offices, living quarters, and horse stalls. Dr George Leslie Mackay in fact arrived in Danshui on March 9, 1872 aboard the Douglas-owned Sea Dragon from Tainan. The most notable company building was the 2-story warehouse (the large building on the left in the picture below):

[Above: a closer view of the same warehouse. In 1958, it temporarily housed refugees from Kinmoy. It was destroyed by fire in 1959-60.]

After the Japanese takeover of Taiwan and starting in 1907, the Colonial Gov't, through executive orders and legislation, began to shut down the sea routes of the Douglas. In 1909, that from Danshui to Amoy and Foochow ceased to operate. In 1910, the Danshui <-> Hongkong route was restricted and the port of entry/exit was moved from Danshui to Keelung. This was followed by subsidizing the operation of the Osaka Shipping Co for international transports as well as the 伊萬里 I-man-li Shipping Co for inter-port shipping in Taiwan itself. Soon after, the Douglas went out of business with its warehouses and horse stalls taken over by Danshui Postal and Police Offices, respectively. And the company living quarters at 龍目井 given to Japanese businessman 中野金太郎. As mentioned above, 中野 re-built the residences to accommodate teachers from Japan who taught at Danshui and Wen-hua elementary schools.

It should be noted that during the Japanese colonial rule, private properties and lands that belonged to Danshui-ren were left untouched. Unjust land reforms came much later in 1953 when small land owners were forced to give up their properties, compensated with worthless stocks of nationally-owned businesses. The beneficiaries were the then tenant farmers, now the landlords of numerous hi-rises dotting the shorelines of Danshui River and beyond. This land reform has not foreseen/stipulated what happens if the farmers no longer till the land and sell it instead. Often unnoticed but this was the biggest wealth transfer in Taiwan history.

On a personal note: The clinic of Eyedoc's father, a noted surgeon, was located on a small lot on the outskirts of 龍目井, at No 29 - re-named 264 Chung Cheng Road after 1945.

Taiwan postcards by Mori Ge'Juo 森月城の台灣的風景繪葉書

2010-11-13T22:04:00.007+08:00

The postcard above is from 森月城の《台灣的風景繪葉書》；「滾滾長江東逝水、浪花淘盡英雄，是非成敗轉頭空、青山依舊在、幾度夕陽紅；白髮漁樵江渚上、慣看秋月春風，一壼濁酒喜相逢、古今多少事、都付笑談中」。 It is a view from the front yard of the 淡水公會堂 looking north [the unseen Guan-yin Mountain is on the left bank of Danshui River], painted by Mr 森月城Mori Ge'Juo (1887-1961) in the mid-1930s. The cited "poem" is a Chinese 詞, composed by 楊慎 (1488-1559) of Ming Dynasty [明楊慎《二十一史》彈詞第三章《說秦漢》], performed in the style of 臨江仙.

淡水会 Tansui-kai

2010-11-06T07:01:00.024+08:00

[Members of 淡水会, photo taken on Sept 3, 1988, in Hiroshima on occasion of the 22nd Re-union]

Some of us have wondered about whatever happened to the Japanese residents of Danshui after they were sent back to Japan in 1946. After all, in the immediate post-war era, Japan was not a good place to start/re-start a new life. It turns out that they did in fact overcome much hardship and more than 300 of them have organized a 淡水会 (Danshui Society) to carry on regular meetings. And always on the agenda is a briefing on the current status of their hometown, Danshui.

The first and 2nd re-unions were held in Kyushu area, where most members were originally from. These meetings were led by 木下静涯先生 and the 小栗常寿・鮮一郎 brothers. The third re-union in Hiroshima was headed by 廣川研一先生. In 1991, Mr Hirokawa re-visited Danshui Elementary School where he had taught before the war. By April last year, the membership has dwindled to around 100 and the the most recent reunion was attended by only a few who are still capable of traveling. The remaining members now live in different prefectures:

神奈川(Kanagawa)県：15名
福岡(Fukuoka)県：13名
鹿児島(Kagoshima)県：13名
東京都(Tokyo)：10名
熊本(Kumamoto)県：8名
埼玉(Saitama)県：7名
千葉(Chiba)県：5名
三重(Mie)県：5名
兵庫(Hiogo)県：4名
Other locations: 12名 (9 in Taipei/Danshui)

In Danshui, they were ordinary citizens who sold groceries, wine, salt, stationery, tobacco, and noodles for a living. There were also an artist, a reporter, and a pilot. Some worked at Tansui Jinja, Bank of Taiwan, the Tansui Beach, and the Public Hall. There were also a few administrators including mayors and policemen. The most influential group was arguably the elementary school teachers who had taught a whole generation of 淡水人 Tansui-jin to be good citizens. Many pupils now in their 70s and 80s, when asked, can still recall the dedication of this special group of educators. Some even remember their Japanese friends and neighbors by name. All from more than 65 years ago.

In fact, three generations of Japanese had lived and prospered as 淡水人, and yet all are now almost forgotten as if they had never come and stayed. The memories of the Japanese era remain largely fragmented in Danshui only to survive intact in a foreign land.

We wish the current members of 淡水会 well and hope to see Tansui-kai continue and expand with new members from both Taiwan and Japan.

木下靜涯 Kinoshita Seigai

2010-10-25T06:27:00.012+08:00

木下靜涯 (1887-1988), founder of Taipei 黑壺會 and resident 画伯painter of Danshui, was known affectionately to Danshui-ren as the "Mr 木下 who lives under the tree 木下" - a play on his surname. This tree, a 苦楝樹 [China tree/berry], still stands proudly in front of his house [at the old address: 三層厝 No 26]. It can be seen from 三角窗 on Chung Cheng Road where Dr George Leslie Mackay’s statue now stands.

Of the many Japanese immigrants who settled in Danshui, the story of 木下靜涯Kinoshita Seigai is a unique one. In fact, his association with Danshui was purely accidental.

In the December of 1918, Mr Kinoshita was traveling with some artist friends to India and stopped over in Taiwan when one of them became ill. Mr Kinoshita volunteered to stay behind and care for the friend. He soon ran out of funds and could not afford to return to Japan. While continued painting in Taiwan, he also went to Danshui and visited 公會堂, where many artists met, painted, and held exhibitions. Mr Kinoshita quickly fell in love with the beauty of Danshui and decided in 1923 to stay and conducted paining classes for the locals. He later was joined by his family and became active in the art world of Taiwan.

Mr Kinoshita specialized in 東洋畫 (known as 膠彩畫) who often painted the rainy scenes of Danshui. The painting above shows a Danshui-ren in the traditional rain gear with Guan-yin Mountain looming in the far background. He was well known for his 日盛 - six-paneled Japanese screens as well as the southern-school 山水 and 花鳥 paintings.

He taught water-color and black-ink painting for 24 years until he was repatriated in 1946, together with all of his fellow immigrants, back to Japan. He chose to stay low-keyed for the rest of his life and lived out his remaining days in 北九州市Kitakyushu-shi, the northern-most district of Fukuoka-ken.

Mr Kinoshita's last words were: 好日好日又好日 [Day after day, again a good day], a man apparently at peace with himself and the world.

Mid-Autumn in Danshui

2010-10-10T22:13:00.024+08:00

[Eyedoc's childhood home on Chung Cheng Road]

Such a well-written article by Patrick Cowsill, it must be shared by all:

"Mid-Autumn in the Midst of Danshui"
http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1903&Itemid=156

For those of us who grew up in Danshui in the 50s, some observations:

(1) BBQs were not associated with Mid-Autumn festivals, the culinary link has always been with the moon cakes which commemorated the Chinese popular uprising against their Mongolian rulers in the night of Mid-Autumn, ca 1368. Legend has it that secret messages were hidden in the cakes to alert everyone of the planned revolt.

(2) The original hibachis火鉢 ["fire-pots" - in which charcoals are placed] were used as hand warmers and space heaters in the winter time, and on which, we roasted dried cuttlefish or 年糕 for snacks. [Left: a 大正時代 porcelain hibachi.]

(3) Fish-balls were spherical, not ellipsoidal as they now appear. They were/are the most delicious human creation. The most popular fish-ball soup shop was located at the fish market directly in front of Ma-Zu temple. The novice tend to bite on the piping hot fish-ball thereby burning their mouths. The proper way is to cut the fish balls into halves or quarters with your soup spoon and eat them with the soup. Eyedoc's aunt's family still makes the best fish-balls in Danshui, available at a small workshop across from 龍山寺, in the wet market.

(4) Fort San Domingo was occupied by the Brits who flew an over-sized Union Jack over it; and directly across Chung Cheng Road, at the riverbank, secret construction of mini-submarines [below] by the ROC Navy went on, right under the nose of the British Consulate.

(5) Before the Taipei Metro, there were also tourists although who headed for Danshui Golf Course directly never set foot in our little town. We liked it that way.

尋根"roots"

2010-09-30T06:14:00.017+08:00

[Top: where EyeDoc's childhood home was located; and below: directly across the street was Mr H's house]

This is a story of dispersed Danshui-ren coming home to "尋根".

In the blog entry dated 9/26/2010, Mr H observed:

"明日、福岡空港からキャセイ・パシフィックで台湾に行ってきます。
今回の淡水行きはとても楽しみです。
半生記以上まえに同じ町内で過ごしていた人と、その街で初めて会うのです。"

And on 9/28, internet friends Mr H (accompanied by his daughter), EyeDoc and Mr Kure"Go" finally met up in Danshui. All were born in this lovely town, not long before the end of the war, in the early 1940s; fate, however, has led each of them down unusually different paths. And today is the day for all to come back to the point of their origin.

As indicated in the pictures, Mr H was born in 1940 in the house directly across the street from EyeDoc's. His grandmother had been the manager of 公會堂 since the 1920s. And his father had taught at Danshui and 三芝San-zi elementary schools. In 1946, they were all repatriated back to Hiroshima.

Mr Kure's great grandfather was the mayor before the war and his grandfather (mother side) the principal of Danshui elementary school for many years after the war. His family had moved to Nakasaki immediately after the war when he was only 2-3 months old. He, as EyeDoc, still has relatives and family friends living in Danshui. Some came to help locate old sites - many stores on the now Chung Cheng Road were owned/operated by Japanese immigrants.

The office of the Mayor of Danshui has officially welcome them back home, followed by a reception at the 115-year-old Danshui Elementary School hosted by Principal Lin and two other past principals, one of them 80 years young. Everyone at this get-together is tied, in more ways than one, to the school. This is true not only for Mr H and Mr Kure, EyeDoc has attended this school and his second uncle was the principal at one time. The school was re-introduced by Principal Lin and, in return, graduation photos of the classes which Mr H's father had taught are shown. And a local TV station came to record this event.

[Principal Lin proudly introducing the 100-year-old 榕樹 on campus.]

After a sumptuous lunch hosted by Principal Lin, the 尋根 group moves on to 三芝 ES. And in the 4-month-old museum established to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of this school, the names of Mr H's father and Mr Kure's grandfather are found among the teachers' roster. Amazingly, history has come alive!! Despite whatever happened in the past during the Japanese colonial rule, ordinary Japanese immigrants did share part of the Danshui history. We see no reason why it should be denied.

All parties must come to an end. They have come specifically - Mr H and his daughter from Hiroshima and Mr Kure from Yokohama - for the Danshui meet-up and tomorrow, they will all return to Japan.

The true hometown? Why, Danshui of course!!

澎湖 Iles Pescadores 1885

2010-09-18T06:31:00.025+08:00

The above is a rare glimpse of the French feet congregating in 馬公Makung of the Pescadores澎湖 in 1885 [source: Paulus Swaen Internet Auction, a dealership of ancient maps].

On March 14, 1885, the French Gov't stopped supporting the battle in Keelung and ordered Adm Courbet to take the Pescadores instead. On March 29, Courbet led the ironclads "Bayard" and "Triomphante", the cruisers "d'Estaing" and "Duchaffaut", the gunboat "Vipère" and the troopship "Annamite" plus 400 Fusiliers Marins commanded by Capt Lang and invaded Makung. The small town was defended by Gen 梁景夫Liang Jing-fu, 周善初Chou Shan-ch'u, and 鄭膺杰Cheng Ying-chieh. There seemed participation of foreigner-advisers, including one Brit whose diary was later recovered by the French. The Qing garrison fought back with Armstrong guns firing from Fort Shi-jiau-tze四角仔要塞 and several other coastal gun batteries. The French fleet bombarded and destroyed the defense in the morning of March 29. The French Fusiliers Marins landed in the afternoon in the southern cape of the island and began to march on Makung. With the support of the naval gun-fire, they eventually defeated the main Qing force on March 31 and proceeded to occupy the whole Pescadores. And Makung Bay became the base for as many as 30 French warships by the summer of 1885.

The casualties for the French were 5 dead and 12 wounded, and for the Chinese, 300 dead and 400 injured. The Chinese foot soldiers who retreated to Tainan for medical treatment were noted to have sustained frontal wounds indicating a noble but futile stand against the French.

In the painting above, the harbor is seen packed with French ships, Volga, Destaing, Bayard, Atalante, and Volta. In the background is Fort blindé [most likely Makung]. In the background, in the mountains, are the positions of the Chinese troops (marked Chinois).

Underneath are notes in brown ink: Mouillage d'une partie de l'escadre de l'amiral Courbet.
Iles Pescadores (Chine) - Kelung Mai 1885. So this painting was apparently drawn from memory or finished 2 months later in May in Keelung - the artist also had neglected to sign his name.

Adm Courbet died on June 11 from either illnesses or injuries. This is the memorial in his honor in Makung:
And the French Fusilier Marin war-dead (including those died from diseases) are commemorated on Mt Snake Head蛇頭山:
The French evacuated the Pescadores on July 22. And as any good tourists, they loaded up on souvenirs purchased from local entrepreneurs. Among the favorites were bronze Buddhas, hand-carved screens, and other Oriental trinkets, most likely at a much inflated price. The French were under strict orders to pay for what they needed, souvenirs included. And many islanders made a fortune as a result. It would not be surprising if these treasured items now show up in the antique shops or flea markets somewhere in France.

9-11

2010-09-11T08:00:00.020+08:00

[Note: The following was written 4 years ago - from a simple man's perspective. It is re-posted here to commemorate those victims who lost their lives in the tragic event.]

It is 9-11 again. Few in Taiwan had experienced what people on the US East Coast had gone through on September 11, 2001. I'll share mine:

It started out as a routinely busy day. We were in the middle of examining patients when one of our techs came into my room and told us that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. We all thought that it might have been a terrible accident until things rapidly unfolded. As soon as we had realized that America was under attack, the 50-year-old clinic policy of "never close down the office unless there is a war" finally came into effect. In our practice, many patients came from out-of-town and overseas. And all of a sudden, they could not go home any more because Logan Airport was shut down [it turned out later Logan was where two of the hijacked flights originated]. Our staff made arrangements for the patients to stay at a Holiday Inn nearby. It was a controlled chaos and everybody was worried. Dr U, one of our research fellows, absolutely could not comprehend what was transpiring. She was terrified that she'd be stranded in Boston, never to go back home to Japan again.

I called Dr L in my other office outside of Boston and told him to close down and go home. Then I got into my car to drive home myself. There were very few pedestrians on Cambridge Street by this time (around noon). When I got on I-93 North, I was amazed that the normally congested highway was now totally empty.

It finally sank in: "This is war!!"

For the rest of the day, we stayed in and glued to the TV set. I was thinking that my generation had gone though the last stage of WW-II, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, and the entire Cold War. Now this. And occasionally a fighter jet would fly overhead. Its high-pitch streaking sounds were very different from that of the commercial jets. It was quite disconcerting.

In the ensuing days, we found out a friend lost her brother when the towers collapsed. Another friend's daughter broke down and cried uncontrollably upon hearing the news - she used to work there and many of her friends were now gone.

We still feel the effects of 9-11 even today. For one thing, our overseas patient flow slowed to a trickle. And sometimes we have to arrange for them to see other doctors outside of the US. Travel, by air, is no longer a simple matter.

TV is showing the memorial ceremony at Ground Zero now. The victims will never know why they were targeted.

I hope we don't go through this ever again.

一滴水記念館Memorial Library of One-drop-of-water

2010-09-05T22:57:00.013+08:00

In July, a house in an ancient Japanese style, built in 1915 by the father of Mr 水上勉 [Minakami Tsutomu, 1919-2004], was relocated piece by piece from 福井県Fukui-ken in Japan and re-assembled and re-finished in Danshui, next to Danshui Golf Course. It is christened "一滴水記念館", the namesake of "若州一滴文庫" (a literary library in Mr 水上's hometown), to promote cultural exchange. The masterpieces of both Mr 水上 and Mr 陳舜臣 [a Taiwanese writer born in Kobe, 1924 - ] will be housed on site. Mr 水上 was a well-known writer of deductive-detective novels and Mr 陳 specializes in recreating historical events.

Come and visit and browse. Here is a virtual tour:

[Source: http://www.katakura.net/xoops/html/modules/wordpress/index.php?p=601]

The Tung-kang Incident 東港事件

2010-08-29T22:59:00.048+08:00

With materials provided by Mr R Huang

Most people in Taiwan know about the 228 Incident. It has become a political point of contention in recent years. The West also has learned about it from George H Kerr (1911-1987) through his book, Formosa Betrayed.

It must be noted, however, that the history of modern Taiwan does not begin solely with this incident of 1947. Sadly, because of the White Terror, the Taiwanese have chosen to remain silent and the history of 1941-45 has gradually faded from the collective memory. In fact, very few now know what had transpired in the Tung-kang Incident 東港事件.

The better-known 東港事件 or 特高事件 was one of the 4 major political persecutions of the Takao Taiwanese by the Japanese Colonial Gov't, collectively known as 高雄州不逞陰謀事件. This Incident was preceded by the 鳳山事件, followed by 旗山事件 and 旗後事件. In all, 4-500 of the Taiwan leadership elites were imprisoned, severely or fatally tortured, and some sentenced to death.

特高, short for 特别高等警察 Special high-command police, was the secret police unit created in the French/German mode in 1911. It was directly under the Ministry of the Interior. Its main mission was to protect the emperor from potential assassination by communists and anarchists. Taiwan, under the colonial rule, was a police state, much more so than mainland Japan and Korea, the latter was then also under the Japanese colonial rule. And the Special Police Unit went wildly out of control in Taiwan in an attempt to stamp out the Chinese nationalism of the Taiwanese who began to realize that Japan was losing the war and anticipated a reunification with China. The Japanese colonial gov't would not tolerate the increasing Taiwanese political activism and sought to suppress this tiny opposition group. Unfortunately, they had targeted innocent citizens. What followed were the four incidents all occurring in 高雄州Takao Prefecture:

(1) 鳳山事件 [Feng-shan Incident]: This incident took place in 1941 in 林園鄉. It started by a Japanese policeman 櫻井勇 and his informer (a certain 蘇) seeking revenge that eventually spread like a wild fire. 櫻井 was initially stationed in 林園鄉. Together with his informer, they terrorized the residents who complained to their superiors. 櫻井 was charged with corruption and transferred to Pintung and 蘇 went to jail for being his cohort. They soon hatched a plot to take revenge on the people of 林園鄉. The opportunity presented itself when first in June, 1941, at a lunch gathering, a 黃允南 argued heatedly with 黃和順 over the misdeeds of 櫻井. And on Aug 25 when 黃允南 told others that "we will soon see the light" referring to Japan's losing the war, it was promptly reported by 黃和順 to "保正"黃水香. The latter filed a false report claiming that 黃允南 was organizing a revolt. 櫻井 forwarded the report to 鳳山 County police which started a surveillance on 黃允南 and his associates. The county police then submitted a report to the special police and on Nov 8, 22 people were seized and imprisoned. Three more waves of arrests were to follow, the last one on April 24, 1942, netting more than 50 that included Dr 吳海水, Dr 莊媽江, 蘇泰山, and 李元平. 吳海水 was a physician, hardly an armed revolutionary. His only "crime" might have been helping 林獻堂 and 蔣渭水 in founding the 台灣文化協會Taiwan Cultural Association, a literary club known to espouse anti-Japan views. He was sentenced to 15 years of prison. Many others were tortured to death refusing to admit the gratuitous guilt or implicate innocent others. The charges were all trumped up, there was simply no evidence of any organized revolt to support the landing of Chinese troops [who were nowhere to be found in any case].

(2) 東港事件: Unfortunately, the 鳳山事件 was to spill into the nearby 東港. The instigator was Takao-shu Special Police chief 仲井清一 (who was to meet an untimely death in 1945 when Japan surrendered). In Aug, 1942, based on the statement extracted from 黃本 and 張明色 after severe beatings, a famous lawyer Mr 歐清石 was incarcerated. The police action extended into 東港 with the detention of 陳江山, 陳月陣, 郭生章, 許明和, 趙榮讓, 洪雅, 張恨 - all from 東港街; 周慶豐 and 張朝輝 from 溪洲庄; 何寅 and 陳言 from 新園庄; and 王永漳 from 茄苳庄. And because of the ready access to news from outside of Taiwan and the potential of collaborating with the Americans, the fishermen were also investigated and jailed. The most well-known was 伍主賀.

From Aug, 1942 to July, 1943, more than 200 were detained and in all, 4-500 were implicated - all based on essentially an imaginary crime against the state. Again, many were tortured to death. The special police was especially creative in the methodology of torture which could only be found in Hell as many survivors later recalled.

At this point, because of the cases threatened to involve all prominent Taiwanese whose cooperation was still needed, Governor General 長谷川清 [from 1940-44, succeeded by 安藤利吉] requested that the inquisitions be limited in scope and also sought for an early conclusion of these cases.

In a cruel twist of fate, Mr 歐清石 and Mr 洪雅 [for more, see here] were both killed when the American bombers bombed their prison in Taipei in 1945.

In addition, Dr 郭生[成]章's beloved son Dr 郭鴻文 [left - from R Huang] who returned from postgraduate studies in Japan to care for his father's patients, was intentionally drafted to serve as a military doctor in the IJN. Dr 郭鴻文and 40 other Taiwanese physicians perished in Cape St Jacques near Saigon on Jan 12, 1945 [for more, see here].

(3) 旗山事件 [Chi-shan Incident]: To imitate the successful prosecution in 東港, Special Police 寺奧徳三郎 of 旗山 played up a minor offense. In which some 4th graders of 溪州庄國民學校 wrote essays and innocently parroted the family views of the impending demise of the Japanese Empire. The teacher and the school principal apparently panicked and promptly alerted the Special Police who proceeded to investigate and found that a popular physician Dr 柯水發 often discussed contemporary affairs with his patients. On Nov 8, 1941, Dr 柯水發 together with 陳金秋, 郭萬成, 黃石松, et al, were imprisoned for allegedly plotting to aid the [imaginary] invading Chinese forces. In April, 1944, Dr 柯 was sentence to life imprisonment and his friends 陳秋明 to 15 years; 黃石松 10 years; and 劉萬成 7 years. Mr 黃石松 was to die in prison from torture.

(4) 旗後事件 [Chi-hou Incident]: In 1940, 王天賞 was elected the city senator of Takao who ran against several Japanese candidates. As a matter of personal principle, he refused an invitation to participate in the 皇民奉公會Council of Loyal Imperial Subjects, an organization for converting the Taiwanese to Imperial Japanese. This refusal caused him to be charged as a spy [for China] in 1944. And 20 some others were also implicated that included 潘致祥, 潘吉祥, 李水, and 陳福全. In prison, they could hear the American bombers flying overhead and the explosions from the dropped bombs. Unfortunately, Mr 李水 died in prison before the surrender of Japan.

Most these detainees were freed after the end of the war. Lessons from these incidents, however, were totally ignored and history repeated itself only 2 years later. In many ways, the 228 Incident paralleled the Tung-kang Incident. They were both fostered by circumstances, aided by collaborators-informers, and abetted by the authorities - the same deadly drama only under different titles, played by entirely different casts. It is also fair to say that the pent-up anger between 1941-45 finally erupted in 1947 when again, it was the quasi police that triggered the events.

In retrospect, the White Terror in fact started in 1941 if not earlier. Its grip was loosened somewhat in 1945, tightened again in 1947, and officially sanctioned in 1949. The Taiwanese became 噤若寒蟬 - as silent as a cicada in the wintertime - until 1987. And for 20+ years, the battle cry for the democratic movement has been a "respect human rights" and the 228 has become, since 1995, the only known incident of Taiwan's suppressed past.

For the falsely accused of the Takao/Kaohsiung Incidents of 1941-45 who paid such high personal and family prices for retaining the Chinese identity, however insignificant that was, it has all come unjustly to a naught. It has been deliberately neglected because there is nothing to gain for Taiwan politicians as the perpetrators had long ago returned to Japan. On humanity grounds alone, however, it is time now for the victims to be remembered, by ALL Taiwanese.

Cremation site in Keelung 1895

2010-08-22T22:27:00.014+08:00

[Source: http://photo.xuite.net/yeyuchng/3822725]

Losses of the IJA, when they invaded Taiwan in 1895, sometimes were etched in stone. The above is a small monument with the markings of "軍人軍屬火葬場之碑" [The cremation site of soldiers and military employees] located in Keelung基隆三坑龍安街198巷.

And on its back side, in classical Chinese:

"明治二十八年,台灣之役起也.從軍之士或罹于戰鋒,或觸于瘴癘在基隆而死者,實二千一百五十有六人也,當時悾摠之際,不遑一一葬焉,乃於此所火葬,舉其遺骨至諸家鄉,今又更收燼灰而痊焉,以建碑云,明治二十八年十一月"
"In Meiji Year 28 [i.e., 1895], the Taiwan campaign started. The enlistees, either perished in battles or died from diseases in Keelung totaled 2,156. Since the circumstances did not allow proper individual burials, the remains were cremated and the ashes returned to their hometowns. To commemorate completion of the recovery of the ashes, this monument is hereby erected. [Dated] November, 1895"

In the haste of the battles, it might have been difficult to differentiate between deaths in battle or from diseases. The record did show, for example, in the battle of Rui-fang瑞芳, 8 war dead and 6 deaths from sicknesses. It is unknown if this ratio applied to other battlefields but was probably very close.

Graves of the Japanese, including that of the military, actually scattered throughout Taiwan, some were quite old dating from 1895. In 1945, through civilian efforts, more than 14,000 sets of remains were recovered from abandoned Japanese graves. They were interred in three locations, Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. Only one site is well-known, the 日本人遺骨安置所墓園 [below] established in 1961 on the grounds of 寶覺寺Bao-jue Temple in Taichung [健行路140號]. Many have come to pay their homage. Buddhism memorial services, open to the public, are conducted every year in early December.
A number of Japanese cemeteries were built over when waves of refugees arrived from China in 1949 who desperately needed housing. The best known is the 三板橋 Japanese Cemetery in Taipei. This settlement was demolished in 2000 and turned into a public park, the 林森公園; although the whereabouts of the 2-3,000 sets of remains are unclear [may have been moved to 三芝San-zhi, north of Danshui]. Another site, a Japanese military cemetery, in Tainan was built over by 實踐三村 [台南市北區西門路門段], now converted into 實踐國宅. The construction occasionally uncovered bones together with military swords.

The execution of French POWs 1884

2010-08-14T06:49:00.003+08:00

It was often difficult to know how truthful the news reports were during the Sino-French war.

The above is an illustration [click to enlarge] published in 點石齋畫報Dian-shi-zhai Pictorials Issue 乙七 Page 50 (in the 9th Month of 1884). The artist was 吳友如Wu You-ru. In it, General 孫開華Sun Kai-hua, with subordinates, is seen presiding over the execution of French POWs in front of Ma-Zu Temple in Danshui - under a banner [upper left] marked with his name 孫.

And the caption reads: "...after a four-hour battle, the French lost. Our army were in hot pursuit. The French retreated to the beach and more than 100 of them drowned. A 3-striped officer was captured and a 7-striped officer was killed. More than 40 were decapitated and their heads hung high above the Ma-Zu Temple for all to see. Everyone is happy for justice has been done..."

In truth, this scene never occurred. To sell more copies, the Pictorials had played up Chinese nationalism and gave the readers what they wanted, i.e., a public execution.

And the French casualties in the caption might also be exaggerated. This appeared a common Chinese practice. Indeed, even Liu Ming-Ch'uan's own dispatch to the Qing Court stated that 25 were beheaded, more than 300 shot dead, and 70-80 drowned. These were very different from the French version. In La Terre Illustrée, under the heading of "Le mousse de l’amiral Courbet: Campagne de l’Indo-Chine - Fou-Tchéou et Formose", the young French sailor/author reported on Oct 15, 1884, that in the Danshui campaign, 17 were killed and 49 injured. The captured 3-striped officer was the already wounded Lieutenant Fountaine [the French map of the battle of Tamsui recorded the location where his body was abandoned], but no loss of a 7-striped officer was ever known [that would have been the fleet commander Rear Adm Sébastien Lespès who had lost the battle but not his life].

And the breakdown of the losses (ship name/dead/injured) was:

La Galissonnière/9/9; Triomphante/4/17; Duguay-Trouin/0/4; Château-Renaud/0/7; Tarn/2/4; Le Bayard/0/3; and d'Estaing/2/5. [Note: Le Bayard was still in Keelung, the numbers here are its Fusiliers marins re-assigned to assist in the attack of Danshui.]

Of course, we can't really be sure if the French deliberately played down their own losses to counter the Chinese claims.

These numbers games abound in history. A victory, unless Pyrrhic, means much greater enemy losses and the more lopsided the more glory. And unacceptable losses can always be blamed on diseases.

Modern-day Frenchmen may have already forgotten la Guerre Franco-Chinoise. The interest in this part of the history has long faded. And if anything at all, the attention would have been placed on the major battles fought in Tonkin, not China. For the people of Danshui, however, the memories of being at the receiving end of 2,000 shells and the sacrifice of the Chinese soldiers from Hunan remain fresh. And all important landmarks are still around us. In fact, celebration of the 126th anniversary of the victory at Fisherman's Wharf, organized by the Tamsui Township Office, is now underway.

Japanese coolies 1895

2010-08-06T21:35:00.025+08:00

[A "civilian" Japanese coolie in rain gear, ca 1885. The pole was used to carry heavy burdens hanging on the two ends, and the whole load balanced on one shoulder.]

Japanese transport coolies who accompanied the troops to the front line as Military Laborers [軍夫] were supposedly non-combatants who simply provided the much needed logistical support. This was generally true; although they did volunteer to fight, e.g., in the previous sacking of 大連Port Arthur in Nov, 1894.

In fact, even though it was never mentioned in the history books, Japanese 軍夫 did commit violent acts against the Taiwanese during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan in 1895. James Wheeler Davidson (1872-1933) had hinted at such in his 1903 book "The Island of Formosa, Past and Present"; London and New York: Macmillan & co.; Yokohama [etc.] Kelly & Walsh, ld. [The full version can be found here: http://www.archive.org/details/islandofformosap00davi]

On pages 341-2, he wrote:

...It was not considered politic to depend entirely upon Chinese, although they had so far been found satisfactory; so Japanese coolies were brought into the island in numbers sufficient to completely equip the expedition. Japanese coolies accompanied the Imperial Body Guards [i.e., the 近衛師團] when they first arrived in the island, and whether they were then more carefully selected or were under better control I do not know; at all events they made no trouble. Also the soldiers of the guards seemed to be polite and gentlemanly, quiet, and good humored, and many well educated young fellows were among the privates. I was with them on and off for three months, and the conduct of officers and privates was such that I became enthusiastic over their general good qualities. On my return from the south, I found a decided change for the worse. Scenes of violence, approaching to ruffianism, took place in the streets. First, there appeared to be a deplorable change in the character of the soldiers. One saw among the new arrivals many who were rough, uncouth, insolent, and disagreeable. They, of course, formed but a small part of the whole; yet they were sufficient in number to lower the reputation of the service to which they belonged. Chinese are adepts in acts of foolishness, and often give cause for much irritability; yet there was but little forbearance shown them on the part of some of the soldiers. My experience with the Japanese troops in the field leads me distinctly to disbelieve the tales of wholesale slaughter reported by the Chinese, which occasionally reached the columns of foreign journals. The troops were then marching in large numbers under the control of their officers, who were educated and enlightened men. There is no doubt that occasional excesses occurred; for soldiers, whatever be their nationality, are far from immaculate; but the injury to Japanese reputation thus caused was small compared with that worked by the coolies, individual soldiers, and the lower class Japanese, in the thousand little acts of harshness and abuse towards the Chinese during the period of occupation. Much as I respect the Japanese people in general, I must admit that the coolie class, as I encountered them on the streets, in public places, etc., were inferior to the Chinese coolie of Formosa in general bearing, in cheerfulness, and in politeness to strangers. I say "of Formosa;" for I do not wish to convey the idea that the coolie, as seen in this island, was a representative of the large mass of laboring men in Japan; in fact, so striking was the difference that two English gentlemen, both of long experience with the Japanese of all classes, informed me that they could not have believed that there was material in Japan from which to draw such a class, had they not witnessed their ill-mannered conduct with their own eyes. The reader should also understand that the Chinese in Formosa have of late been very friendly to foreigners and are more liberal-minded than the mainland Chinese; in fact they show none of the hostility to strangers common in some districts of China. Therefore, it would not do to extend this comparison either to Japan or to China. On the part of the military administration, whose whole attention was directed towards the completion of the occupation of the island, but little attempt was made to curb the high spirits of the Japanese coolies. It is true that the poor fellows spent a good deal of their time in the various hospitals, and large numbers found a grave in the island, and we should perhaps take into consideration the arduous labor in which they were engaged in a country not their own; with but scanty food ; often forced to sleep in the open fields, and exposed to an intense heat to which they were not accustomed. Again the Chinese often thought they were ill-treated when they were not. Military rule is in many ways unpleasant, but is the same in that respect all over the world. If the necessity should again arise for the Japanese coolies to be made use of in military operations, some provision should be made to place them under more strict control than they were under in the expedition in question. One can scarcely blame the better class of Japanese for not having come to the island during the early days of the occupation. Quarters were few and miserable, and disease was attacking large numbers. During the latter part of August, the three government hospitals in the north of Taipeh, Kelung, and Teckcham [note: this was 竹塹, the present-day Hsin-chu] received nearly 2,000 patients, and deaths were occurring at an average rate of 18 per day...

For a somewhat pro-Japanese westerner, Davidson did tell us the ominous change in the quality of some soldiers and, more important, the "thousand little acts of harshness and abuse towards the Chinese [i.e., the Taiwanese]" perpetrated by the lowly coolies. To the Taiwanese, there was no distinction between Japanese coolies and soldiers; they were all ruffians, or worse. Davidson himself probably was unable to differentiate between these unruly coolies, individual soldiers, and lower-class Japanese. And apparently the high command did not attempt to reign them in, either. These criminal acts no doubt had further fueled the Taiwanese resistance when the Japanese marched and attacked south. Despite Davidson's initial disbelief, many villages in southern Taiwan even now still bear silent witnesses to the atrocities committed against their residents. In all, about 14,000 Chinese soldiers and 100,000 Taiwanese civilians perished in the 10-month 乙未 war.

In the end, Japanese coolies did not fare so well in the Taiwan campaign. They died in the hundreds from diseases [possibly cholera and the mosquito-borne malaria] and exposure. Their deaths were excluded from military casualty records and were apparently forgotten.

As if heeding Davidson's advice, the status of 軍夫 was elevated in the subsequent foreign wars to almost that of the modern combat service support. The indoctrination was for all Japanese nationals to sacrifice for their emperor; becoming a 軍夫 was therefore a great honor and an important opportunity for this cause.

Starting in 1942, Taiwanese youths were officially drafted to serve as 軍夫 [and also as 學徒兵 and the higher ranking 軍人 and 軍屬]. These were the well-educated men with most of them from middle-class families. And to drive home the point, many prominent Taiwanese were also asked to serve as 軍夫. The song, the Honorable Military Laborer 誉れの軍夫 (1938), adapted from a popular Taiwanese ballad 雨夜花 (1934), became the call to duty:

赤い襷に誉れの軍夫　うれし僕等は　日本の男
[Wearing red sashes as a honorable military laborer, we are the men of Japan]
君にささげた男の命　何で惜しかろ　御国の為に
[I'll dedicate my life to the Emperor and unreservedly to the country]
進む敵陣ひらめく御旗　運べ弾丸　続けよ戦友よ
[Rushing into enemy lines waving the royal banners and transporting ammunition to my comrades]
寒い露営の　夜は更けわたり　夢に通うは　可愛い坊や
[Lying on the cold camping ground in the middle of the night dreaming about my loved ones]"
花と散るなら　桜の花よ　父は召されて　誉れの軍夫
[If a flower is to wilt, let it be the cherry blossom - I call on my dear father, the honorable military laborer, to be so]

And they joined up in great numbers and were sent off to the Pacific War. Essentially, in less than 50 years, a whole generation of Taiwanese was transformed into loyal Japanese - only to be abandoned in 1947 when Japan revised its 戶籍法Household Registration Law that disowned non-Japanese nationals, including the Taiwanese. This generation now in their 80s is still with us today.

And the song 雨夜花 is still with us as well. The video below shows a recent rendition of the original, composed by Mr 鄧雨賢 (1906-1944) with lyrics by Mr 周添旺 (1910-1988), performed by 江蕙 and in the second part by Placido Domingo et al on Nov 28, 2002, in Taipei:

Fish paste jiaozhi 鮮魚漿餃子

2010-07-31T19:53:00.017+08:00

New recipe - from the collection of Teng-Feng Fishball Museum II [the Tourist Factory] in Danshui 淡水登峰魚丸博物館二館【觀光工廠】:

材料: 魚漿一斤,水餃皮一包,青蔥一把,胡蘿蔔少許,洋蔥少許並灑上少許胡椒粉調味.
Materials: Fish paste 0.5 kg, 餃子jiaozhi skin, one bundle of green scallions, bits of carrots and onions, and a pinch of ground pepper [Note: use your own discretion as far as the proportion of each ingredient].

Methods:
1. 魚漿與青蔥,胡蘿蔔,洋蔥攪拌均勻(內餡).[Mix everything together.]
2. 將內餡包入水餃皮壓緊.[Wrap the above mixture in jiaozhi skin.]
3. 煮熟浮起即可.[Boil until done, i.e., when they float to the top.]

...好吃,低油,低負擔的魚漿水餃就完成了~
...Enjoy.

Normally, 餃子jiao-zhi or 水餃shui-jiao is prepared with ground meat. This new receipt calls for fish paste which totally transforms the jiaozhi-eating experience. Give it a try.

When in Danshui, you can also visit:

Tamsui Teng-Feng Fishball Museum (the original) and the soon-to-open Museum II [the Tourist Factory] 淡水登峰魚丸博物館二館【觀光工廠】, and arrange for DIY sessions for school children to learn fishball-making and more:

All kids, young and old, are welcome!!

腳氣病 Beriberi

2010-07-23T21:08:00.047+08:00

Beriberi, caused by Vitamin B1 or thiamine deficiency, has not been a major illness in China or Taiwan. Traditional Chinese medicine manages it efficaciously by using dietary barley [without the knowledge that it is loaded with thiamine]. In contrast, beriberi was widespread in Japan in the Meiji Era when the polished rice found its way into the Japanese diet. Polished rice is rice with the outer husks removed - together with the thiamine contained within, unfortunately. It is far more tasty and at the same time more pleasing to the eye than the unpolished brown rice, and very quickly, it became the main staple food of the Japanese.

However, unlike the Chinese who consumed rice together with other relatively sumptuous dishes, the Japanese tended to eat rice by itself, accompanied if ever, by a small amount of pickled vegetables and some fish. The meals of the Japanese enlisted men consisted of almost all polished rice - as it turned out that this was the reason why beriberi broke out in great numbers.

It was unknown in the beginning that thiamine-deficiency was the causative factor. The medical corps of the IJA and the IJN were split on the management of beriberi. A British-educated IJN medical officer 高木兼寛Takaghi Kanehiro found in 1883 that if western-style rations with bread and meat were provided to the crew on a training mission, none developed beriberi; whereas on the same 10-month journey one year earlier, with only polished rice on board, 169 of the 378 crewmen came down with the illness. Western meals were therefore adopted as a standard fare by the IJN. The IJA medical corps, on the other hand, adhered to its German training, believing that beriberi was an infectious disease caused by some unknown bacteria. For years and in both the Sino-Japanese (1894-5) and the Russo-Japanese (1904-5) wars, casualties from beriberi mounted until 1905, when barley, based on Chinese medicine, was introduced into the military diet that finally brought the disease under control. The document below was the official order No 266 dated March 27, Meiji Year 38 (1905), for the IJA to add 30% barley [often unwelcome to the servicemen] to its rice rations:
In 1910, Japanese chemist 鈴木梅太郎Suzuki Umetaro finally identified Vitamin B1 and linked its deficiency to beriberi; although the Nobel prize for its discovery went to Dutchman Christiaan Eijkman in 1929. [Suzuki waz robbed.]

The search for a more palatable substitute than barley had led to the development of dried yeast tablets. And one of the most famous brands was/is Wakamoto [see insert]. Next time when you travel by Taipei Metro, take a few moments and examine the giant Wakamoto posters on display in many of the stations. You'll know that there is a long history behind this nutritional supplement that contains a secret ingredient, Vitamin B1 (thiamine). Wakamoto yeast tablets in fact went on sale in 1929 and have remained on the market ever since.

Beriberi also had a close yet hidden association with Taiwan. The Sino-Japanese war ended with China ceding Taiwan to Japan. And in June, 1895, the IJA occupation force invaded Taiwan and fought against its residents. It was often unquestioningly cited that the Japanese casualty totaled 4,806, and of that number, 4,642 died from diseases principally beriberi plus malaria and cholera. We now know that some would have already become ill from beriberi (and cholera) prior to arriving in Taiwan and some were actually combat deaths, and yet the loss was conveniently blamed on the putatively substandard and unsanitary living conditions in Taiwan. Which were not all that different from the rural areas in Japan at that time.

As a side point, the Taiwanese had lived and thrived on this beautiful island Formosa since at least 1662, immune to the many deadly diseases that seemed to strike only the hapless foreign invaders, first the French (1884) and then the Japanese (1895). Tropical medicine has been the expertise of the traditional physicians of Taiwan (and the later addition of Western medicine simply reinforces it). The prevention of malaria and the plaque, and the treatment of cholera and beriberi were in fact all quite well-practiced. But then, Taiwanese doctors were most likely not too eager to help the enemies and the latter too arrogant/fearful to seek any help anyway.

During the Pacific War, beriberi re-surfaced among the Japanese servicemen. As any reasonable consumers of rice, the soldiers also rejected barley in their white rice and the military-issued Wakamoto tablets were equally distasteful.

[Above: a 1940 poster advertising Wakamoto tablets.]

In the 1950s, the then enterprising 台糖公司Taiwan Sugar Corp developed sugar-coated yeast tablets, known to that generation and beyond as 健素糖. They have been wildly popular until killed in 2006 by media reports that the yeast was of questionable quality fit only for pigs. [This time, the Taiwanese kids waz robbed.] A resurrection is presumably in the offing. It still is. In the meantime, Wakamoto dominates, after 81 years.

Cholera!?

2010-07-18T12:15:00.008+08:00

Between 1896 and 1945, i.e., during the Japanese colonial rule, Danshui was hit with several epidemics. According to Danshui Town history:

Sep, 1896: Black death, prompting the quarantine of ships docked in Danshui Harbor
Oct, 1896: Founding of 滬尾傳染病隔離所(Hobe Quarantine Hospital for Contagious Diseases) which came in handy when on Oct 12, 1896, a black death epidemic broke out and 127 died
Jan 15, 1925: cases of small pox were found among other diseases

[The quarantine hospital in Danshui]

Rat-mediated black death was the scourge of Danshui, in large owing to junks arriving from Foochow that carried infested rats. A number of preventive measures were taken. For example, cone-shaped iron collars were fit onto the anchor lines to prevent rats from jumping ship. And the Town Office offered cash rewards for each domestic [as opposed to field/wild] rat caught and turned in, plus a lottery ticket with the grand cash prize drawn every 6 months. This popular practice continued until 1937 when the disease was deemed under total control. However, in 1946, with junks started arriving from China again, another black death threat commenced but which was quickly squelched by local physicians trained in western medicine.

Curiously, Danshui seemed to have escaped the great cholera epidemic of 1919 which engulfed the Greater Taipei area. Some 1,633 persons had been infected with the disease and 1,358 died. On July 8, 12 cholera cases were first discovered in the Pescadores. And around the same time, a Japanese businessman 木津丑之助 arrived from Foochow via the ship 湖北丸 in Keelung and became ill. It was confirmed 3 days later that he had contracted cholera. By then, the disease had already spread to Shih-lin, Keelung, and 大稻埕Da-daw-chen (the now Da-tung District).

The Colonial Gov't immediately instituted the following:

(1) all ships from Foochow and Swatow arriving in Keelung and Takao would be quarantined;
(2) starting on July 29, all patients and suspicious cases would be isolated and the dead buried 6 feet underground;
(3) a disinfection unit based in the Danshui Theater in Da-daw-chen organized and set in action;
(4) intense public hygiene education started; and
(5) mandatory public inoculation reinforced by 67 inspectors and 184 policemen.

[An disease inspection station in Shih-lin]

The epidemic mercifully ended on Nov 4 when the last case was released from isolation.

Forced inoculation was necessary because of public resistance to the "modern" disease management which was met with skepticism. Also, many who looked sick or even simply were unhappy in appearance, and some who were merely sound asleep were mistakenly rounded up and forced into isolation wards, and their family and relatives all quarantined. These had generated enormous animosity among the citizens. Plus, the survival rate of the "modern" treatment was only one in ten (10%); whereas of those who escaped to the countryside and were treated by traditional medicine, 8 to 9 in 10 had survived. The 漢醫Han-doctors in fact had been taking great care of the Taiwanese for centuries and they did know how to manage cholera, among other diseases - for cholera, it was paying especial attention to re-hydration and ionic re-balance. The skepticism relative to the inoculation was also justified as cholera vaccines were (still are) only 25-50% effective and the quality of the vaccine doses in 1919 was also questionable.

Danshui, in contrast, had come out of the cholera epidemic unscathed. Ironically, it was because the Japanese Colonial Gov't had chosen to ignore Danshui and developed Keelung Port instead. As a result, few foreign ships came to call on Danshui.

[A junk from Foochow, in isolation in Danshui Harbor]

Historically, however, Danshui's Customs Office had long maintained a Quarantine Office. Plus, the requirement that ships from China with sick passengers/sailors anchor off shore, in the middle of Danshui River certainly had been a sound policy even before the Japanese era. These precautions plus the vast improvement in town sanitation during the Japanese rule had made Danshui a relatively safe place to live.

Terms of Japanese repatriation 1946

2010-07-10T13:00:00.008+08:00

[A 50-cent stamp commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the US Constitution, issued by the Rep of China in 1939. The map did not include Taiwan in China's territory and the label, 美國開國-the founding of the US, was erroneous.]

The Taiwan Provincial Gov't issued guidelines for the repatriation [引揚hiki-age] of Japanese residents on Feb 15, 1946. This document, in excruciating detail, is shown below. It was written in a form of bureaucratic Chinese, almost incomprehensible to the common Japanese.

A brief summary here:

Article 1 states the eligibility of those who chose to or were asked to stay in Taiwan.

Article 2 determines who could remain, for example, the Japanese wife of a Taiwanese could stay and the Taiwanese wife of a Japanese could choose to either leave or stay.

Article 3 lists household items including the quantities allowed. Each household was permitted only one load that could be carried on one person's back:

Toiletries: wash basin 1, mouth rinsing mug 1, soap case 1, towel 1, toothbrush 1, toothpaste 1, some cosmetics, and bars of soap 2;
Bedding needs: futon 2 sets, pillows 2, bedsheets 2, mosquito net 1, straw mat 1, blankets (or cotton mattresses) 2;
Clothing: winter clothes 3 sets, summer clothes 3 sets, sweat shirt 1, coat 1, shorts 3 pairs, shirts 4, cardigan 1, socks 3 pairs, long stockings 2 pairs, vests 3, pajama 1, raincoat 1, tweed cap 1, gloves 1 pair, clogs 2 pairs, shoes 3 pairs;
Kitchenware: rice-cooking pot 1, frying pan/wok 1, portable stove 1, spatula 1, firewood tongs 1 pair, water scooper 1, small knife 1, rice ladle 1;
Daily-use items: fountain pen 1, lead pencil 1, stencil pen 1, brush-pen 1, red ink 1 bottle, blue ink 1 bottle, watch (or pocket watch) 1, eyeglasses 2 pairs, matches 5 boxes, tissue paper 2 packs, cigarettes 10 packs, thermos bottle 1, small mirror 1, combs 2, cloth-brushes 2;
Food: enough for 2 days.
And so on.

Article 4 is on banned items such as firearms and swords, cameras and telescopes, gold and silver bars, unmounted gem stones, stocks and stock certificates, etc.

Article 5 is about the amount of cash allowed [note: an executive order would soon follow].

Articles 6-16 describe the repatriation processes including the organization of household groups and teams, selection of leadership, confiscation and receipt of disallowed items, setting up of local processing offices and Ports Keelung and Kaohsiung as the departure points, medical emergencies and burials, etc.

臺灣省日僑管理委員會公告臺灣省日僑遣送應行注意事項

民國三十五年二月十五日　秘字第一九二號　臺灣省日僑管理委員會公告　　

本省日僑遣送應行注意事項業經簽奉長官核准；除電飭各縣市政府知會基隆、高雄辦事處暨各縣市日僑輸送管理站遵照外，合行檢同前項注意事項公告週知。

主任委員　周一鶚

附件：臺灣省日僑遣送應行注意事項

第一條　本省日僑之遣送或留臺，依其志願及本省需要決定之，其標準如左：
　甲　日僑志願留臺而政府認為無留臺需要者，應即遣送回國。
　乙　志願回國之日僑，具在學術技術或特殊專長之智能，而政府認為有留臺之必要者，仍應繼續徵用令其留臺。
　各有關機關及各縣市政府應即依據前項標準，將日僑調查名冊加以初核，並送本省日僑管理委員會（以下簡稱本會）複核。

第二條　本會及各有關機關暨縣市政府審核日僑去留，除依照前條規定辦理外，其家屬之去留應依左列各款之規定：
　甲　兩人以上分擔家庭生活，其中有應留臺，有應遣送者，其直系家屬之去留，聽其自願；
　乙　准予留臺之日僑，其直系家屬之去留，聽其自願，其必須遣送者，仍予遣送；
　丙　遣送之日僑對其家屬負有單獨扶養之義務者，其家屬應同時遣送；
　丁　夫為日僑，妻為本國籍，而結婚在本省受降以前者，妻之去留聽其自願；
　戊　妻為日籍，夫為本國籍，而結婚在本省受降以前者，其妻得予留臺；
　己　罪犯嫌疑案件未結或移交未清者，暫予留臺，其家屬之去留聽其自願；
　前項遣送回國日僑，在遣送途中發生傳染病者，其家屬不能單獨回國時，得暫准留臺，候痊癒時再予遣送，如需監護人監護者，其監護人亦得暫准留臺。

第三條　遣送回國之日僑（簡稱回國日僑），每人准攜帶物品一挑，以自能搬運者為限，其種類數量不能超過左列各款之規定：
　甲　盥洗具類：面盆一個，漱口杯一個，肥皂盒一個，毛巾一條，牙刷一把，牙膏一瓶，化粧品若干，肥皂二塊。
　乙　寢具類：棉花被二條，枕頭二個，被單二條，蚊帳一條，草席一領，毯（或棉花褥）二條。
　丙　衣履類：（男女相同，隨身穿著者除外）冬季衣服三套，夏季衣服三套，衛生衣一件，大衣一件，短褲三條，襯衣四件，羊毛衣一件，短襪三雙，長襪二雙，背心三件，睡衣一件，雨衣一件，呢帽一頂，手套一雙，木屐二雙，皮鞋三雙。
　丁　炊具類：（以下除爐灶外，以銅鐵質料者為限）煮飯鍋一隻，燒菜鍋一隻，爐灶一具，鍋鏟一把，火嵌一把，水瓢一個，小菜刀一把，飯瓢一個。
　戊　日用品類：自來水筆一枝，鉛筆一枝，鋼筆一枝，毛筆一枝，紅墨水、藍墨水一瓶，手錶（或掛錶）一隻，眼鏡二副，洋火五盒，粗紙二刀，香姻十包，熱水瓶一隻，鏡一面，頭梳二把，衣刷二把，圖書若干與作戰無關而非歷史性書籍及文件報告書、統計數字暨其他類似資料者為限）。
　己　行李袋：手提包一件，手提袋一件，籐箱一個。
　庚　藥品類：均以足敷一週間為限）內服藥四種，外敷藥兩種，紗布若干，橡布膏若干，棉布若干，繃帶布若干。
　辛　食糧：航行期中，得多帶二日量食糧。
　前項日僑攜帶物品，不許分二次搬運上船，並不許僱用苦力幫同搬運，但若殘廢、患病或攜帶幼孩者，得酌准備人代搬，有幼孩者，並酌准多帶。

第四條　回國日僑不得攜帶左列物品：
甲　炸藥、武器、軍火、大型刀劍。
乙　照相機、雙眼遠望鏡、野戰望遠鏡及其他光學器材。
丙　金條、銀條、金塊、銀塊、未經鑲嵌之寶石藝術品等。
丁　各種有價證券、銀行存款、及債權有關證明文件，但日本本部、臺灣、朝鮮及舊關東州等地之郵政儲金存摺，及日本所屬臺灣銀行或其分支行發出之存款簿，暨郵局或日本公司所發之生命保險單，不包括在內。
戊　珠寶奢侈品，而不合於持有人之身份者。
己　超過第三條規定以外之物品。

第五條　回國日僑攜帶現款之數額以命令定之。

第六條　回國日僑應以分區集中輸送為原則，其遣送先後程序以命令定之。

第七條　回國日僑由居留地至港口途中之給養，由日僑自行負責，到港口至上輪前止之給養，由政府發給代金，其代金數額，每人每日暫定臺幣十元以下，十歲以下，每人每日暫定臺幣七元，本會辦事處得就代金範圍內統籌辦前項給養處理辦法及上船後之給養，另定之。

第八條　縣市政府於奉到本會之日僑遣送通知時，應趕填日僑遣送通知單（附通知單格式），並附准予攜帶物品暨禁止攜帶物品清單，至遲於遣送前一日送達日僑知照。

第九條　回國日僑，接到通知後，即作離臺之準備，其財產處理，依照臺灣處理境內撤離日人私有財產應行注意事項之規定辦理之。

第十條　回國日僑應受左列規定之檢查：
　甲　健康檢查；
　乙　攜帶物品檢查；
　丙　一般性檢查。

第十一條　前條健康檢查分為兩次，第一次得於日僑居住地或集中醫院行之，第二次於集中港口時實施，由本會基隆、高雄兩港口辦事處邀同美軍聯絡組派員共同負責，至攜帶物品及一般性檢查，應於上輪前實施。前項檢查注意事項另定之。

第十二條　實施檢查如發覺第四條所規定物品時，應予沒收，掣給正式收據（附收據格式），由檢查員、保管員、被沒收人及檢查機關長官分別蓋章。
　　前項沒收之物品，彙存一處，不得擅予變動，並列冊分報本會及本省接收委員會日產處理委員會。

第十三條　回國日僑，在輸送期中，應依左列之規定予以編組：
　　甲　以戶為單位，三戶至五戶為一班，班設正、副班長，由班內各戶長推舉之；
　　乙　三班至五班為一組，組設正、副組長，由組內各班長推舉之；
　　丙　三組至五組為一隊，設正、副隊長，由隊內各組長推舉之；
　　丁　各縣市遣送回國日僑人數，如超過兩隊以上者，編為大隊，超過四隊以上者，編為兩大隊，超過兩大隊者，編為總隊，設大隊長、副大隊長、總隊長、副總隊長各一人，由各隊全體日僑推舉之。
　　前項編組，應於日僑集中前，由地方政府派員指導組織成立，並發給回國日僑證明書（附格式），其編組辦法另訂之。

第十四條　日僑編組完成後，所有關於膳食管理、秩序維持、衛生清潔、房舍配宿、以及日僑相互間之互助、救濟、醫藥等事項，均由班、組、隊長分層負責領導辦理。

第十五條　本會為便利辦理日僑輸送及管理事務，特於基隆高雄兩港設辦事處，各縣市所在地設日僑輸送管理站，其組織規則另定之。
　　前項辦事處及日僑輸送管理站，均須準備醫務人員，必需藥品，及對死亡者埋葬之設備。

第十六條　本省輸送日僑計晝另定之。
A349-A351政府遣送日僑回國通知單
A352-A357沒收日僑物品收據
A358-A359臺灣省回國日僑證明書存根
A360-A361臺灣省回國日僑證明書　　（臺灣省行政長官公署公報）

That was it, absolutely no valuables allowed out of Taiwan.

The repatriation was quite orderly. And since it was only a short journey, there was minimal hardship during the transportation back to mainland Japan. Most repatriates, however, have chosen to remain silent to this day.