高砂義勇軍 The Takasago Volunteer Army

[A map showing the advancing routes of the Americans in the Pacific.]

Below is the theme song of "サヨンの鐘" (The Bell of Sayon, 1943) performed by 李香蘭Li Ko-lan of 滿洲映畫Manchuria Film Production. This was a very popular propaganda movie intended for the Aborigines in Taiwan who often enlisted in the IJA after attending the picture show. It had a simple yet effective plot of patriotism and sacrifice with Li's character Sayon, an Atayal girl, dying in a flash flood while sending her Japanese teacher off to the war:

There have been theories on why the Aborigines accepted Japanese militarism so soon after the 霧社Wu-She Incident of 1930 when members of the Atayal tribe were mercilessly suppressed. Only they themselves are in a position to tell others why.

Also, very little about the 高砂義勇軍 is known outside of Taiwan; in fact, not even within Taiwan itself. It is part of the Taiwan heritage that must not be lost. Luckily, oral history has been and is still being preserved; although, much as the rest of the fading WW2 generation, it'll become too late soon enough. The least we can do here is to try to provide a little overview:

The Japanese had experienced first hand the fighting skills of the Aborigines in many previous conflicts. It was natural for the military to regard them as a potential source of fighting men. In the beginning, the Aboriginal warriors were recruited into the IJA as 軍夫 to serve as laborers to ferry military supplies. The exact date of their departure for the Philippines was unclear; although it was before 1942, before the draft laws became official. Between 1942-43, there have been 7 contingents/brigades sent to the Pacific war theaters, each consisted of a few hundred men. The first brigade of 500 distinguished themselves in the battle of the Bataan Peninsula on May 7, 1942. With the victory, the ranks of the Aboriginal soldiers were elevated to 軍人, i.e., bona fide soldier, with equal rights to the Japanese. This status was accorded to the subsequent 6 groups of enlistees. And in 1943, two teams of 500 men each recruited from those already in service were even trained as special forces; they were sent to Luzon Island and suffered heavy losses there. For example, none of the 80 薰空挺身隊paratropers led by Lt 中重男中尉 survived the mission on Nov 26, 1944. All together, a conservative estimate of about 4,000 served in the Pacific War.

In the photo below, the 薰 soldiers in training can be seen carrying a long Aboriginal knife/machete (番刀, also known as 義勇刀, with a 48-cm blade and 16-cm handle) and the Model 38 rifle with its bayonet. Also, the star emblem on the steel helmets was painted with fluorescent dye for easier identification at night.
It is said that an Aborigine can survive anywhere in the wild with a box of matches, a packet of salt, and his personal knife.
Each of the 9 Aboriginal tribes has their own design of the knife which is given to the newborn-boys as a gift to last a lifetime. They are allowed to wear the blade at age 12. It not only is a deadly weapon, but more important, it is also a multifunctional tool. It figured prominently in the Pacific War, a war essentially of perfecting survival skills in hell and this tool was absolutely indispensable. There was also a spiritual bond between an Aboriginal man and his knife, not unlike that between the traditional Japanese samurai and his sword.

The Aboriginal soldiers saw action in 4 different battle theaters:

The Philippines: On Dec 22, 1941, the Japanese landed at Lingayen Gulf and encountered fierce resistance from Gen Jonathan Wainwright's army. The bulk of the US-Philippines forces quickly retreated south to Bataan Peninsula where they were eventually defeated and forced to surrender on April 9, 1942. The infamous Bataan death march was its aftermath. Earlier in March of 1942, 500 Aboriginal enlistees reported to duty in Kaohsiung and formed the 高砂挺身報國隊. They shipped out on March 15 and arrived in San Fernando for 5 days of basic training. Then they were assigned to various Japanese units to carry out duties that included transport and supply of ammunition, transport and care of the wounded, collection of salvageable weapons, construction of camps and field hospitals, communications, and burial of the dead. Often, however, they also pick up rifles and become scouts as well as participate in fire fights. Because of their bravery, resourcefulness and endurance on the battlefield, the high command decided to grant them the regular army status, and renamed them 高砂義勇軍. After Bataan, they went to Bagio to construct roads and bridges. And 6 months later, 100 of them joined the 橫山先遣隊 and went on to fight in New Guinea.

East New Guinea: The battles at New Guinea were a total waste. There was no coherent war plan. They were fought more for attrition to draw in the Americans. It was in fact the Japanese military's attempt to shift the national attention from the humiliating defeat in the Solomon islands. On July 21, 1942, the 橫山先遣隊 arrived in Buna in preparation for attacking Port Moresby. This task force consisted of the 15th Independent Engineers Company and the 144th Infantry Company of Osaka with the 55th Artillery Company, the Aboriginal soldiers, and the Korean laborers in support. They were 96 Paiwan tribesmen from Kaohsiung-shu and 5 Amis from Taitung-Hualien. Also, on June 26, 1942, the 5th Aboriginal brigade as part of the 18th Army landed in Hansa Bay, north of Papua New Guinea, moving south to assist in the attack of Port Moresby. They were 85 Atayals from Hsinchu-shu. The march south took almost 6 months through Wasu, Madang, then downhill to Aitape where they were re-supplied by the 7th Aboriginal Brigade, under the IJN, with food and ammunition transported from Wewak. In March, 1943, the supply convoy for the 18th Army was annihilated in the Dampier Strait, the Army had to retreat to Wewak and then But. This was also a time when cannibalism crept in. The orders of no Japanese flesh allowed were also ignored. Except the First and the Third Aboriginal brigades, the other five had all been thrown into this hellhole. By the end of the war, 160,000 Japanese POWs were detained at Musu Island, and among them, around 2,500 Aboriginal soldiers.

The Solomon islands: The battles at Tulagi Island and Guadalcanal on Aug 7, 1942 are well-known (see, for example, here). Relevant to this blog is that earlier in July, the Third Brigade (600 men) under the IJN departed from Kaohsiung and stopped over Manila for 3 days. Upon learning the news of the American attacks, 200 were diverted to defend Guadalcanal by way of Rabaul. After the defeat in Guadalcanal, they ended up on Bougainville Island growing rice and after the war they were confined to a concentration camp on Fuaru Island.

Pulau Morotai: The Battle of Morotai started on Sept 15, 1944 and continued until the end of the war, or, technically until 1974. The island was defended initially by 500 Taiwanese soldiers, the main component of the 2nd Provisional Raiding Unit. They faced an overwhelming invading American force by a ratio of 100 to 1. As in other battles in the Pacific, the defenders and the reinforcements suffered greatly from diseases and starvation. The Americans needed Morotai to stage the invasion of Mindanao to re-take the Philippines, hence the all-out assault. Private Teruo Nakamura, the last confirmed Japanese/Aboriginal holdout on Morotai or elsewhere, was captured by Indonesian Air Force personnel on Dec 18, 1974.

As those Taiwanese war-dead, the Aborigines are also enshrined in 靖國神社Yasukuni Jinja in Tokyo.

There have been numerous movies and TV programs about the Pacific War. The most recent one is the HBO mini-series, "the Pacific" (April, 2010); its first 3 episodes depict the battle of Guadalcanal - exclusively from the American perspective of course.
Not only the Aborigines, men and women from Taiwan were also part of this history. The Taiwanese enlistees have often been portrayed as guards of POW camps, while in fact most of them, 80,433 to be precise, fought on the front line. Their stories still remain untold.

Manchuria 1945-6

To read this post, pro-lifers please remember that this was wartime in 1945-6. And in Northeast China and North Korea, hundreds of thousands of defenseless Japanese settlers were desperately trying to return to Japan.

The pictures below show a tiny shrine located on the grounds of 済生会Saiseikai Hospital in 二日市Futsukaichi of 筑紫野市(Chikushino City) in Fukuoka. It commemorates the unborn - from the unwanted pregnancies, terminated without anesthesia of women brutally raped by Soviet soldiers and N Korean Security Forces. They were among the 1.39 million refugees arriving in the nearby 博多港(Port Hakata) by ships sailing from Korea and China who escaped from 満州Manchuria. Some of these women were so distraught that they chose to drown themselves right before docking.
This is the rest of the story of the abandoned Japanese orphans in China [see previous post here].

In 1937, the 廣田内閣Hiroda Cabinet under the pressure of the IJA announced the Seven National Policies. One of them was migration to Manchuria with the goal of moving 1 million families or 5 million people in from Japan. They were organized as Frontier Developing Corps. And by the end of the War, 80 such corps (population: 270,000) settled in Manchuria occupying 2 million hectares of land forcibly taken from Chinese farmers. The latter either became hired-hands working for the Japanese settlers or organized into armed resisting groups (called "匪賊bandits" by the 関東軍Kanto Army). On July 7, 1945, all Japanese adults between 18-45 years old were drafted to serve in the IJA, leaving behind old folks, women, elementary school pupils, and little babies to fend for themselves. And in August, 1945, Soviet Union declared war on Japan and proceeded to invade and occupy Manchuria and N Korea. The Japanese began to flee and in the process, died at the hands of the the Soviets, Chinese, and the Koreans.

The map below (Northeast China) shows the settlers retreating (thin arrows) and joining into larger groups (thick arrows). The general plan was for most to reach 奉天Koten (now 瀋陽Shenyang) quickly and then board the train to Seoul. The black dots denote, however, where the Japanese were ambushed.
For example, it is known that a group of 2,000 women and children refugees on their way from 葛根廟 (near 興安) to Shenyang was attacked by Soviet tanks and machine-gunned. Only 150 survived the massacre. Some of whom became the "abandoned orphans". And in 麻山 (near 牡丹江), 720 evacuees, facing Soviet tanks and Chinese bandits on both front and back sides, all committed suicide.

The Soviets also blocked the escape route for the Japanese, i.e., the Shenyang -> 丹東Dandong -> Pyongyang -> Seoul railroad (thick red line), thus trapping the refugees in Shenyang:
In this city, in the bitter cold of the winter of 1945-6, an estimated 110,000 Japanese perished.

Those who later managed to trek from China to N Korea found themselves assaulted/raped/killed by the Soviets and the N Korean Security Forces. The survivors crossed the 38 degree parallel (dash-dot line at the bottom of the map above) into the American-controlled S Korea and reached 開城Kaesong/板門店Panmunjeon and Seoul area, and eventually were shipped back to Japan.

A quarter of a million Japanese did not make it back to their homeland alive. And 4,000 elementary school pupils and babies were left behind in China. These abandoned children sued for compensation from Japanese Gov't in 2004. The lawsuit still continues today [for more, see here]. There are so many bureaucratic red tapes to cut through indeed.

Anybody interested in motion picture portrayal of this period should see ”赤い月” (東宝, 2004, see posters below) which begins by showing a family from 北海道 on their way to 牡丹江 via 南满铁路. The protagonists went through the prosperity as business owners, the panic before and during the war, and the escape as refugees from the advancing Soviets.
Not too surprisingly, this mass repatriation remains relatively unknown outside of Japan.

A postscript: The Russian atrocities against enemy civilians, i.e., the Japanese in China and the Germans in Germany, were committed on the specific order of Josef Stalin. For more info and the source of this post, click here.

In memory of 蔡坤煌醫師Dr Tsai Kun Huang

by ChoSan It was the first summer after the War [note: 1946], the highway to Taipei was destroyed by a series of storms, and the only way to get out from Hualien was by the ship. #2 brother, #3 sister and I were the only passengers on board a lumber company owned ship since the captain was brother’s acquaintance. The ship was doing its routine run that transporting lumber from Hualien and Tamsui. We boarded the ship on the afternoon without any preparation, physical or mental. There were some actions when crews were preparing for the sailing. After leaving the harbor, only sound we could hear was the monotonous engines sound. We sat on the deck and just waited for the time to pass. At dusk, they caught 2 fish by the lines they towed when the ship run across a school of fish. They chop up the fish and made soup then started their dinner. It was not until the captain showed up he offered a bowl of rice with few pieces of the fish to #2 brother. #2 in turn ate half and offered the remainder to me. It was the most delicious meal I could remember. Lying on the coil of big rope I watched the stars in the sky and fell into sleep. Late next morning, we reached Tamsui. Anchored in the middle of river we waited for the inspection. Although we were from the other corner of the same island, we were treated as if the passengers on a foreign ship. Young doctors in white robe showed up by a small boat and started inspect us. It was the first time I encountered with Dr. Tsai, I was 14, and he was 10 years older than I was. When mother was stricken by the stroke we called him for help. He suggested drawing the blood to low the pressure. He had tried but it was too late to draw the congealed blood from mother’s blood vessel. After mother’s death, it was not easy to bear through the rainy winter nights suffering from repeated tonsillitis. The treatment for my disease was penicillin shot, and I went to see Dr. Tsai often since his private clinic was opened after hours. It was one evening after the shot and I returned few minutes later to ask a question that if there was a thing called penicillin shock. Instead of answering he got panic and kept me sitting in his office under observation. Then it was my turn to get panic, thinking I might had a shock and was afraid to leave his office. “Well,” he said finally “let us give the treatment shot even though it looks not a shock.” It was a funny experience we both had shared together in a cold winter night, now to think about it back. Years later, he was the one to do my physical examination for the drafting. He screamed when he measured my blood pressure, “210 is only for a heavy drinker,” he said. Nevertheless, I had passed the test and officially drafted to the ROTC. Married with a local girl he settled in Tamsui and worked for the Health Department all his life until his retirement on 1973 at age 51. I was surprised to discover him as an amateur photographer in the Internet one day while browsing the topics under Tamsui. His pictures were all in B/W and the subjects were limited to old Tamsui [click here for Dr Tsai's pictures]. Based on the fact that the oldest picture shown on the Internet was taken on 1968, there was no doubt that he started his hobby after I left Taiwan. He was born in a small town named Jisui [二水] on August 6, 1922 and died February 22, 1994 after a fire that destroyed his clinic and all his negatives. We might have shared our hobbies if I were to stay at Tamsui.

In search of the Tung-luo clan 東螺社人

Immediately after the surrender of Ming-Cheng or Tung-Ning Dynasty, turncoat 施琅Shi-lang (1621-1696) began ruling Taiwan as 福建水師提督Admiral of Hokkien Navy. This position continued for 37 years from 1684-1721 and it was held by 施琅, 張旺, 吳英, and 施世驃 (施琅's son). The 施 father and son governed Taiwan for a total of 25 years, who, together with their cohorts, took over huge tracks of land as war spoils and levied exorbitant taxes on the residents of Taiwan. Confiscatory taxation, started by 施, was the fundamental reason why there were one uprising every 3 years and one revolt every 5 years during the Qing rule. 施琅 alone amassed 7,500甲 of tillable lands (1甲 =9,699 square meter) or half of southern Taiwan. The yearly 1,200 silver taels of licensing fee from the fishermen in PengHu paid to 施 did not end until 1737, 41 years after his death. And those lands were known as 施侯租田園, the rental harvests collected from generations of tenant farmers and sent to the 施 family in Beijing continued until the Japanese colonial gov't abolished this archaic practice and nationalized their lands.

The Ming-Cheng dynasty lasted 22 years, most of which under Koxinga's son 鄭經. The Chengs' mission of re-taking the Ming territories from the Manchurian Qing required that the military machine be well-oiled. And to generate revenues for the preparation for wars, trading with Japan and SE Asia was vital. This became increasingly difficult after the Qing shut down the east coast of China where valuable merchandises must pass through. Export of sugarcane sugar, deer hides, and other commodities from Taiwan became a major source of income. Locally, a taxation system was also instituted. To increase productivity and tax receipts, the gov't encouraged migration of Han Chinese to Taiwan and its own soldiers were also allotted lands to inhabit and develop (known as the 明鄭屯墾部隊) - often at the expense of the Aborigines. These settlements were quite extensive with the bulk in southern Taiwan stretching all the way north to Danshui. The Han population of 100,000 at the end of the Dutch period increased to 200,000. In other words, 施琅 had inherited a vast tax base, not a sparsely populated island with only Aboriginal subjects that paid token tributes.

For the especial interest of this blog, we should point out that in Taipei County area, the following Ming-Cheng sites survived to this day: 桃澗堡 (the first settlement), 南崁港, 芝蘭三堡(i.e., 淡水港), 芝蘭二堡(唭哩岸), and 芝蘭一堡(大直).

In 1684, the Ming-Cheng soldiers and military-settlers (totaling about 10,000 men) were forced back to mainland China and the latter's lands taken over by the so-called "Hoklo-speaking Pinpu tribesmen or 閩南語化平埔族人". Thirty seven years of Dutch rule had failed to produce any identifiable Dutch-speaking Aboriginal groups and yet in 22 years of Ming-Cheng, they not only battled the Ming-Cheng soldiers but also learned to speak Hoklo at the same time? Based on this improbable scenario, some have postulated anyway that all Han-people then in Taiwan, not just the military, were all repatriated back to China, the Hoklo-speaking Aborigines [note: more likely Han in disguise] were therefore able to multiply quickly and populate all of Taiwan. They also cite the first of the Five Bans by the Qing, in support:

1. 渡台之禁 (no migration to Taiwan - more below)
2. 入蕃界之禁 (no entry into Aboriginal territories)
3. 冶鐵之禁 (no ironworks - except the officially sanctioned 27)
4. 竹筏之禁 (no bamboo raft construction)
5. 官吏攜眷之禁 (no families of the officials allowed - so that in time of trouble, the officials do not seek to protect their families first)
2-4 were unenforceable and were unceremoniously lifted in 1874 on the eve of the Sino-French war.

There has been quite a bit of misunderstanding as far as Ban No 1. First and foremost, it was not a total ban. It was immigration by permits and indeed only men were allowed. The purpose was to continue the Qing's Han-controlling-Han policy, for the newcomers to replace the original settlers. It was during this period that some of the Han-Chinese, known as the 羅漢腳 (temple-dwelling homeless bachelors), intermarried with the Aborigines, more for the latter's property rights than love. [And in a different vein, some propose that their offspring were the ancestors of the modern-day Taiwanese.] This, however, is not to say that no others showed up in Taiwan at the same time.

The first Qing royal inspector to Taiwan 黃叔璥 reported that "終將軍施琅之世，嚴禁粵中惠、潮之民，不許渡台。蓋惡惠、潮之地素為海盜淵藪，而積習未忘也。瑯歿，漸弛其禁，惠、潮之民乃得越渡。" Essentially, after 施琅's death, the ban was loosened and even the previously forbidden Cantonese Hakkas were moving in. The ban was never effective in the first place. Even during 施琅's time, there were many ways of circumventing the ban, thanks to the corrupt Qing officials who regarded Taiwan as a gold-mine to get rich from:

1. The time-honored bribery at one's hometown or port of origin for a permit
2. Bribery at the port of entry
3. Smuggled in via flat-bottomed junks
4. Landing at remote areas/sites
5. Using forged permits

There have been studies on the ancestry of Han-assimilated Aboriginal clans. The one by Prof 張素玢 is particularly enlightening. [Much more can be found in this publication, Section 2. In her exhaustive search of the 東螺社人, she has discovered the first male ancestor of the 茆Maw family in 二水Er-shui, Changhua, was a Mr 茆芽, born 1649 and died in 1694. His original name was actually 王Wang. He was from 漳州府詔安縣甲二社 in Hokkien arriving in Taiwan in his 30s [probably as a follower of the Ming-Cheng]. His name change indicated that he was either adopted by the 茆s or had assumed it through marriage. It was most likely the latter as most of his descendants had moved to 埔里Pu-li area in Taichung in 1827 and were identified as Aboriginal in the local registers. So Mr 茆's was a perfect example of the Han-Aboriginal intermarriage. 茆 is not a Chinese name, BTW; it is a shortened phonetic version of the original Aboriginal name. The 茆 family rule prohibits marriage to any 王s, a Chinese custom of no same-name marriages that also indirectly confirms 茆芽's origin.

And the reason why the 東螺社人 migrated out? Loss of ancestral lands to the Han-people. One such Han family is the 陳Chens who chose to settle in 二水 from nearby 田中Tian-jhong, having bought several parcels of land from the 東螺社人 (with the purchase agreement to prove) some 200 years and 7 generations ago. They were the Han-Chinese migrants arriving in Taiwan for a better life, not Aborigines who had adopted a Han name.

The Chens and numerous other Hokkien and Hakka immigrants who arrived in the 18th century from China with or without their families were the reason why the subsequent population increase in Taiwan. The plains Aborigines lost their homelands to the Han people and moved away in two large-scale migrations, the first in 1804 to 宜蘭Yi-lan followed by another in 1823 to 埔里Pu-li, but ultimately they were all absorbed, culturally, by the ever-expanding Han immigrant population.

Japanese orphans in China 中国残留日本人孤児

[Maestro Ozawa Seiji - we wish you a speedy recovery.]

In 1685, 500 藤牌兵 from Taiwan fought the Russians in Albazin, north of the Amur [the Black Dragon River黑龍江]. In the late 1930s, many Taiwanese went, in a supporting capacity, with the Japanese military to serve south of the Amur in 滿洲 - or 東北 [the Northeast of China, used to be 9 provinces, now 3: 遼寧, 吉林, and 黑龍江]. The Taiwanese certainly traveled far.

So how and why did the Japanese get there in the first place?

By the end of the 19th Century, there were already Japanese settlers heading for 東北 region. This continued unabated through 大正 (1912-1926) into the early 昭和 era. And large-scale Japanese migration into "滿洲" (and later "滿洲國"), orchestrated by the infamous 関東軍, went into full swing from 1932 onwards until 1945 [Note: A good summary of the Japanese “Agricultural Emigration” during this period can be found in: http://arts.monash.edu.au/publications/eras/edition-5/mcdowellarticle.php]

Also, the putative intents of the mass migration in the early 1900s were to counter Russian expansion and to resolve Japanese rural economy crisis. By some accounts, early settlers were led to believe that they were to populate unclaimed open lands. However, from 1932 on, the settlers were organized for a de facto takeover of 東北 farmland – often via forced acquisition from native farmers. Eventually, the whole enterprise, emboldened by China’s 不抵抗主義, degenerated into empire-building that culminated in the war with China and beyond. By September, 1944, there were 1,662,234 Japanese residing in 東北 and most were sent back to Japan in 1946-8 (see 葫芦岛市政府辽宁省社科院: “Repatriation of one million Japanese via Huludao” – some parts are available online).

Most famous among those repatriated young ones are the future music director of Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa (小澤 征爾, born in 1935 in 奉天, i.e., 瀋陽, father a dentist), and movie actor Toshiro Mifune (三船 敏郎, 1920-1997, born in 青島, grew up in 大連, father a professional photographer).

And it was probably the massive Han people migration into 東北 that actually saved it from being dominated by Japan. Han people went from 6 million in 1897 to 15–17 million at the end of the Qing dynasty. After that,the Japanese tried hard but could manage ultimately only 1.66 million settlers by 1944. By this time, the Han population was well over 17 million.

Since 1945, there are newly discovered/reported old consequences:

There have been a few thousand "中国残留日本人孤児" – abandoned Japanese babies/children adopted by Chinese foster parents in 1945 amidst disease, death, and destruction. In scenes that no doubt have repeated numerous times in all wars: most children were found alone crying by the roadside, some by the dead bodies of their mothers, and some were just infants left behind in vacant houses (detailed in http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2195). Their existence was first uncovered in 1965 by a group of Japanese journalists then visiting 鞍山. Very few of these children were adopted through formal arrangements, most were simply left behind because their parents either were dead or could not care for them any more. While most adopted children were treated as their own by the foster parents, some had lived on the margin of the Chinese society. And for others who returned to Japan after the 1970s, they found themselves again living on the margin of the Japanese society because of the language and culture barriers. A few Japanese families actually refused to acknowledge these orphans - in a way, also a denial of the painful past. Many foster children had elected to stay in China, before returning to Japan, to care for their now elderly Chinese parents. Most did re-enter the Japanese society.

There was an NHK 1995 TV series, 大地の子Son of the Great Earth, describing the life of such an abandoned little boy. Readers my wish to look it up.

There is more: In the 2004 "War Orphans" list released by the Japanese government, there was one baby girl adopted by the Russians. The description of her case in http://www.kikokusha-center.or.jp/joho/mihanmei/h16/h1612.htm reads [translates]: "On Aug 17, 1945 [note: Japan had surrendered on Aug 15; although fighting continued until Aug 26], near 牡丹江市, 掖河 Station, the Japanese armed forces were attacked by Soviet forces [note: no survivors on the Japanese side]. The baby was rescued by a Soviet soldier named "ミフリャ [note: this is pronounced Mifuliya but more likely, it’s Mifodzia] [note: the baby was crying among the ruins and was therefore discovered by the soldier]. When found, it was wearing a reddish brown coat, a yellow shirt and pants, and was wrapped in a blanket. Its nose was wounded by artillery bombardment." The baby was given the name "ニーナイヴァーノヴナポリャンスカヤ(Нина Ивановна Полянская)" [note: first name Nina that of the Russian nurse treating the wounded baby, middle name Ivanovitch that of the discovering Soviet soldier, and last name Boltyanskaya means "grand vision"] and later adopted by a Russian family. She visited Japan briefly in 2004 but chose to go back to Russia. She has never fully recovered from her wounds.

It was clearly a disastrous summer in 1945 for the Japanese settlers. Mass suicides were common. Some the then children now recall, in the ensuing months, the hunger, the winter cold, the deaths of siblings, hiding from the Russians, and yet retain fond memories of the place they used to call home. And because menfolks were sent to fight wars elsewhere, the remaining families became refugees amidst overwhelming hostilities. The ones escaped through Korea had an especially hard time; see, for example, the book "So far from the Bamboo Grove" by Yoko Kawashima-Watkins, New York, Viking Penguin, 1987 (Puffin Book). Its recollection of the maltreatment of the Japanese women-refugees by the Koreans has stirred up controversies leading to its ban in Korea, China, and some schools in the US [see here].

More about these Chinese foster parents: In one example of an interview in http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/141004.htm, "I did hesitate a little after we learned that it was a Japanese child," said Zhang Zhilan, Ran's foster mother. "I hated the Japanese army very much. They were so atrocious, killing Chinese civilians as if they were chopping a tree. But looking at the newly born infant, I made up my mind. If I was not going to raise him, he would soon die. After all, the child was innocent."

It is hard to imagine in the chaos of the war, some Chinese peasants who came across crying children/infants dressed in Japanese garments and decided on the spot to bring the children home. The Japanese reports describe them as 善良の中國百姓. It is far more than that because we are talking about 4,000 such children, not just a handful. This is a core character of Chinese farmers, far more benevolent, humane, and loving than others gave them credit for. It might have been the hundreds of years of influence from Buddhism, an ingrained morality if you will. For example, this saying "救人一命, 勝造七级浮屠 - Saving one life is even better than building a seven–storied pagoda" alone might have been very important in the farmers' decision to adopt.

Who are Taiwanese anyway

[A map of Aboriginal tribal areas in Taiwan including both Plains and Mountain tribes.]

Here is a view from Danshui:

It is interesting to see the search for Taiwanese identity continues in earnest. Some in Taiwan now disclaim their Han heritage and embrace ever so tentatively that of the Aborigines. While there is a true desire to know, there is also a separatist political undercurrent in both inter- and intra-national senses.

This disclaimer, however, seems to have built upon a deliberate misunderstanding of the terminology used in a 1905 census survey - the first of several conducted by the Japanese.

There were several people categories in this census: (1) Japanese from mainland Japan; (2) residents of Taiwan (based on domicile and residence history); and (3) foreigners and others. Category (3) included "清國人Qing Chinese" and Koreans. It is the designation of this "Qing Chinese" that has prompted some to declare that it means the Han people then residing in Taiwan were foreigners. And according to the census, these people were very few in number (8,083). The vast majority in category (2) therefore can be presumed to be Aboriginal.

To support this Aboriginal theory, it is necessary to minimize the number of the Han people. More theories therefore must be and have been created. To name a few:

(1) Taiwan residents' being originally from Hokkien or Canton was a fraud perpetrated upon the Aborigines by the Qing;
(2) When the Ming-Cheng soldiers were being exiled to the penal colonies in China, 12,724 of them were too destitute to go, hence the Han population in Taiwan should start with this number;
(3) Because of the ban by the Qing on the Han family/female immigration to Taiwan, the 2,979,018 Taiwanese by 1905 must be of Aboriginal descent (i.e., how else could the Han men propagate);
(4) The arrival of any number of Han Chinese during the Qing era is deemed unlikely because of the difficulties in crossing the Taiwan Straits;
(5) The prefectural archives in Hokkien show only a handful of emigres to Taiwan during Qing rule;
(6) A white-cell HLA antigen study suggests that 85% of Taiwanese have Aboriginal genetic markers; and so on.

Despite these arguments, however, the "清國人" fundamentally can only refer to those arriving from China after the Japanese take-over in 1895, i.e., they were citizens of the then 大清帝國, the Qing Empire.

The 1905 Japanese survey was based on three administrative levels of (1) 廳 (prefectures); (2) 堡/里/市/嶼/澳 (cities and towns), and (3) 街/庄/村/社/鄉 (neighborhoods), all of which inherited from the Qing era. A survey done in 1893 (光緒十九年) showed a total population of 2,545,731, up from 1,944,737 in 1811 (嘉慶十六年). The surveyed areas were nearly identical, i.e., the central highlands and Taitung were excluded [except Taitung was included in the aforementioned 1893 census with a total of 6,000]. The map below is from the Japanese colonial period showing mountain Aboriginal territories in different colors - census-taking was conducted outside of these areas. The boundary markers between the Han and the mountain Aboriginal regions throughout Taiwan, etched in stone, were in existence since 1722 (康熙六十一年) if not earlier. In other words, the census data were a collection of both Han people and Plains Aborigines with Han surnames. It has long been argued that the Plains Aborigines lived among the Han. This is true but it only applies to the occasional few as individuals. The reality is that villages in Taiwan were segregated starting in the Ming-Cheng era.

(Source: http://taipics.com/aboriginals-set-6 - this site hosts a huge collection of old photos, pics, and maps of Taiwan.)

During Ming-Cheng, the administrative districts of southwest Taiwan [the Greater Tainan area] actually separated the Han settlements [民社] from the Aboriginal hamlets [番社]. A Ming-Cheng study map copyrighted by Academia Sinica can be found here. [Note: The lone Han settlement in northern Taiwan was Danshui, then called the "上淡水城".]

This distinct segregation, especially in the rural areas, has continued throughout Qing and Japanese rules up until today. Urban areas eventually grew from Han administrative/population centers; however, there have never been any cities dominated by the Aborigines. It is questionable if inter-marriages were necessarily wide-spread or even necessary at all in the first place. In 1666, between 150-200,000 Han people had already settled in Taiwan. This number would change owing to the many subsequent wars but certainly not to the paltry 8,083 by 1905.

Here is a good example accounting for the arrival of Han settlers: "Research on the Development of Niu-Ch'ou River Basin Before 1895" a PhD thesis by 黃阿有, NCKU, 2007. [Note: the Niu-Ch'ou牛稠溪流域 refers to an area northeast of Chia-yi City.] A direct quote from the summary: "...There were some Chinese villages in the 17th century and by the start of Ch’ing’s rule, it was estimated that there were 32 Chinese villages and 8 garrisons. Land developer villages grown to 100 in 1683-1722, and 76 added in 1723-1795. In the end of the 18th century, approximately 97% of the villages had Han developers. This revealed that the quarantine policies in the early Ch’ing rule didn’t work well." This was the general trend of the Han population growth in Taiwan, i.e., a vast influx of Han immigrants over time.

Our simple-minded observations:

(1) While intermarriages between the Han and the Plains Aborigines clearly had taken place - to what extent and whether confined to a certain era/area, however, are all still unknown;
(2) The request for adopting a Chinese surname by the Aborigines had been officially granted during Qing, but not the ancestral family history lock stock and barrel, that was not part of the deal;
(3) The immigration of Han Chinese after Shi-lang's death is also a historical fact notwithstanding the potentially unkept archives in the war-torn Hokkien during the Qing era; and
(4) The HLA antigen study simply means that most Taiwanese have Southern Mongoloid traits; unfortunately the data have been used, erroneously, to imply an Aboriginal ancestry of the Han Taiwanese - these two groups merely share some of the same traits as do many other southern Chinese/Asian peoples.

Have we forgotten anything? Ah yes, the 1905 survey questionnaires also included an item on foot-binding - strictly a Chinese custom. Maybe the number of females with bound-feet can provide much more reliable information on the proportion of Han vs that of the Aboriginal women. Of course, we suppose the quarrelsome ones can still argue that the Plains Aboriginal women (and the Hakka women) were foolish enough to submit to this barbaric practice.

In the long history of the Taiwanese, there have been many groups each dominating at a different time and/or place. And one can always cite numbers and records [including this blog] but that may pertain to only one specific part of the history. Indeed the Indian fable of the blind men and the elephant comes to mind.

Still, incessant discussion without any hard evidence is counter-productive. For those who can trace their family origin unequivocally, the heritage is never an issue. Others especially those who own a Chinese last name yet were/are from an Aboriginal 村 or area may still need a definitive answer. A large-scale forensic DNA analysis (preferably mitochondrial), to resolve who the great great great great-grandma really was, should be done to remove all lingering doubts.

(An elderly Aboriginal woman in Han dress wearing a wrist bracelet sitting in a wicker chair. She was probably of the 賽夏 - not the 泰雅族 - identified by the tattoos on her forehead but none on the cheeks. It is difficult to see her unbound feet in this photo taken in the 1950s in 苗栗Miaoli.)

This still will not be the end, though. Little realized is a much bigger issue with two opposing views: One side proposes that the Aboriginal land ownership can go all the way back to before the Dutch occupation, and the other advocates that the Aborigines were slaves with no property rights who were shipped in by the Dutch. In other words, the question of "who are Taiwanese" will eventually escalate into "who owns Taiwan". Then all of a sudden we will be confronted with China's asserting her sovereignty rights over Taiwan. The consequence can be a very unpleasant 鷸蚌相爭,漁翁得利. The intensity of the separatist debate now will certainly pale in comparison.

Poisson chanteur de Rivière Tamsui - Singing fish of Danshui River

A collection of correspondences, spanning August 23, 1884 to June 22, 1885, appeared in "la terre illustrée" (Illustrated Earth magazine, 1890-1891), under the heading of "Le mousse de l’amiral Courbet: Campagne de l’Indo-Chine - Fou-Tchéou et Formose" [The Apprentice of Adm Courbet: Indo-China Campaign - Foochow and Taiwan]. They were letters written by a young French sailor to his mother and one of his buddies back home in Paris. This man seemed to be in the close proximity of Adm Amédée Courbet (1827-1885) and was quite knowledgeable - he was able to record in great detail the people and places of northern Taiwan and was privy to the high-level discussion involving the battles of Keelung and Danshui.

In one part, he wrote: "Donc le 30 [septembre 1884], c’est à dire avant-hier, nous sommes arrivés devant Kelung, une jolie plage, dominée par des collines. Au-devant, un peu sur la droite, une île qui a exactement l’air d’un hippopotame." ["So on the 30th [September, 1884] or the day before yesterday, we arrived at Keelung, a beautiful beach dominated by hills. In front, a little to the right, there is an island that looks exactly like a hippo."] That puts him on Courbet's flagship, Le Bayard [see here]. In later reports, although unlikely yet he appeared to be present at the battlefield in Danshui with first-hand account of the confusion and the hand-to-hand combat on the beach.

He was apparently fascinated by tales of the sharks in Taiwan. The ones with the head of a human female and evil eyes, and those that eat birds.

Another passage in particular catches our attention: "On dit encore - mais j’ai besoin de le voir ou plutôt de l’entendre pour le croire - que dans une rivière appellée Tamsui, il y a des poissons qui chantent." ["They say, but I still need to see or rather hear it to believe it, that in a river called Tamsui, there are fish that sing."]

Let's see, there were/are tiger sharks in Danshui River and they did bite teenagers who swam in it. These sharks of course don't sing; neither do they possess a woman's head, nor would they leap out of water to catch a flying bird.

And there are so many different fish in the River, too: 豆仔魚, 烏魚, 小金錢仔, 小花身, 黑格, 海鰱仔, 大成仔丁... [For much more, please visit our 登峰魚丸博物館Fishball Museum on 117 Chung Cheng Road in Danshui.]

Wait, the 金錢仔, known locally as the "kim-tsîn-á", do sing!! They sound like male frogs looking for mates. And we have always thought that they were just voicing their displeasure when caught.

Too bad this gentleman did not get to see and hear the fish, or he'd have known more about them:

Chinese name: 高背鰏
English names: Slimy, Slipmouth, Pony fish, Common ponyfish
Nomenclature: Leiognathus equulus
Other local names: 三角仔, 狗坑仔

Dasnhui could have ended up a French colony and the French could have then even caught and eaten the fish. Of course that did not happen. Merci, mon Dieu (or Ma-Zu, for that matter).

These little 金錢仔 are still plentiful; unfortunately, they and other fish from Danshui River are no longer fit to eat as the River has long been polluted.

Additional message from 登峰魚丸博物館: the nomenclature of fish should be italicized: