尋根"roots"

[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

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

[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

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

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

[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

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.