QiLai & NanHua: October 2023

Service Description

In the early years of the Japanese occupation (1895 – 1945), the Japanese exploited camphor, timber, and other resources in the flatlands and hills inhabited by the Han Chinese. After those resources were exhausted, the Japanese moved into the higher mountain areas and began swallowing up the environment where the indigenous tribes lived. In 1907, the Japanese inaugurated a five-year “savage control” plan to map out the terrain, build roads, and suppress the aborigines who held strategic positions and resisted rule. The fiercest of the ensuing conflicts was the Tarodo Campaign of 1914. After three months of intense fighting the Japanese gained the upper hand and began confiscating weapons and ammunition from the tribespeople. The Nenggao Cross-ridge Trail was developed to help control the aborigines. This incident deepened the resentment of the tribespeople against abuse by the Japanese. The famous Wushe Incident erupted in 1930 when Mona Rudao, chief of Mahaipu Village, lead the Sediq people of the Wushe area in an attack on the Japanese during a school sports meet, killing large numbers of their soldiers and police. They also burned all the garrisons along the western portion of the Cross-ridge Trail. Eventually, however, Japanese guns and airplanes were too much for the Sediq, whose survivors retreated to a cave area in the middle reaches of Mahaipu Stream and committed group suicide.

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