As a semi-peripheral state in the global system, Taiwan is often recommended as a successful development case to other Third World countries by the mainstream economic discourses; on the other hand, in the discussions of colonial experiences, resources exploitation and environmental degradation in the Third World countries, the situation of Taiwan is often ignored. Sometimes, in the discussion between social and environmental activists, Taiwan may be criticized for its following the development pattern of core states and exploiting other weaker countries as well. The role of Taiwan in the global community is similar to a subaltern with serious schizophrenia of identity in the colonial society.

    This dilemma situation of Taiwan in the real world also brings the difficulty in finding position in academic discourses. This result has its historical causes, and most Taiwanese have already forgotten. Since the Japanese colonization has ended, the KMT government emigrating from China is like Eurasian Plate smashing Taiwan island heavily, this historical deep impact causes many Taiwanese people to get amnesia. The colonial trauma under the Japanese colonization does not have a chance to see, to talk and to be cured until the Martial Law was finally abandoned in 1987. I think that this colonial fault in Taiwan’s history needs archaeological inquiry with careful digging, and the process of digging is also a way of healing. 

    So I use forest as a place for talking and healing, and the story of the forest is also the medicine of itself. I will try to answer these questions in this paper: what was forest policy of Taiwan under Japanese colonization? How did it influence natural environment, land property, the livelihood of forest aborigines, and scientific discourse and institution of Taiwan? What is its relationship with development trajectory of Taiwan? And what was the relationship between forest management policy in Taiwan and Southern Advance policy toward Southeast Asia? In this paper I will try to discuss the relationship between people, land and forest, which has been broken by the colonial policy, land administration and modern forestry. I think that this paper about Taiwan’s forest under Japanese colonization can help us to trace the development trajectory of Taiwan; it also can bridge the gap between Japan and Southeast Asia on forest issue after World War II. 

    The data I use in this paper is based on historical literatures, English and Chinese academic papers and websites. The raw materials in Japanese are restricted to be fully understood due to my personal Japanese ability, so I do not use very much of them. Some Japanese names are written in original characters because of the difficulty to translate. Of course, all the mistakes should be considered as my own responsibility. 

    Considering about economic advantage, national security, and geopolitics, the South Advance Policy (nanshin ron) got more supports than North Advance Policy in Japanese society after Meiji revolution in 1868. The Navy Commander Sato Tetsutaro said:” Our future lies not in the north, but in the south, not on the continent, but on the ocean”. The journalist, Takekoshi Yosabura insisted: “it is our great task as a people to turn the Pacific into a Japanese lake,” (Peattie, 1984: 179). After Sino-Japan war in 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Chin government. For Japanese expansionists, Taiwan was valued as the Japanese Empire southern advance gate to penetrate South China and Southeast Asia (Peattie, 1984: 90). Some Japanese scholars claimed that: “ Since Taiwan now is our territory, this give our great Japan a chance to expand itself. If we can develop Taiwan successfully, then it will become a base to southern advance to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore (矢內原忠雄, 1987:10). Even though managing Taiwan could bring financial burden on Japan, the enthusiasm of imperialism and the potential future interests kept the Japanese society going on this venture. The goal of founding Taiwan Bank stated the purpose clearly in 1899: “ The goal of Taiwan Bank is to regulate financial situation, explore Taiwan’s resources, stimulate economic develop and furthermore to expand business territory to South China and Southeast Asia”, (矢內原忠雄, 1987:61) “This bank is different from other banks, it has special duty. It can not only think about profits and loss, but have to strive for national future and national glory, even though it has to sacrifice itself. “(矢內原忠雄, 1987:64). 

However, colonizing Taiwan did not bring much financial loss to Japanese government actually, rich natural resources and suitable climate for agricultural production have brought economic revenues to the colonial government soon. Japan ended its subsidies to Taiwan in 1904, which is five years earlier than anticipated. Contrarily, Japan annually granted 4 million Japanese dollars to other colonies--Korea and Kwantung until the end of the colonial period (Ho, 1984: 358). This successful colonial experience was often demonstrated as a proud example by the colonial government (how much alike with the KMT government now), but the truth that Taiwan’s society and environment has paid immeasurable price for this colonial scar has often been ignored! (History often repeats itself!)
 
 

    The whole area of Taiwan island is 3,598,000 hectares, the Central Mountain with rich forest about 1,870,000 hectares (52% of the whole island) lies on the island from north to south, and the western side of the island was plain area with fertilized soil. The highest mountain Ui-Mountain almost reaches 4,000m high and is the highest mountain in the Southeast Asia. With a large range of mountain altitude and the location across tropic and sub-tropic region, Taiwan island has very complicated local micro-climates, which contributes to diverse plants, insects and animals. Considering about the plants species, tropic, subtropic, temperate and sub-frigid plant species all can be found in this island. The abundant natural diversity create a beautiful landscape, this is why the Portuguese called the island “Formosa” (the beautiful island) when they encountered in the 16^th century.

    Taiwanese Mountain Aborigines, who are Austronesian people, have lived on this island for thousands of years. Depending on deer-hunting and shifting cultivation, they have kept their sustainable livelihood for a long time until the end of the 19^th century. Their hunting behaviors are not only for food searching but also symbolize important social rituals. The regulation of hunting about who, when, where or how to hunt is very clear, and this regulation secures the stable provision of food and ecological vitality. The aboriginal sacred places which restricts any human’s disturbance are often the generated location of various wildlife (王俊秀, 1997: 6-3). Shifting cultivation is ecological friendly to natural environment as well. In tropic and sub-tropic region, decomposition of organic matter is very rapid, the nutrients only stay in the shallow layer of soil. Consequently, the productivity of soil soon runs off of after human’s cultivation. Shifting cultivation can overcome this problem because aboriginal people don’t over use the land. The abandoned land can recover soon because of the rapid growth rate of tropic and sub-tropic vegetation. Moreover, this new eco-community reaching the climax status can attract various wildlife searching for food, and it also becomes an excellent hunting field for aboriginal people. 

    However, the harmony between nature and aborigines is terminated by the manipulation of Empire, particularly a modern capitalist Empire. Nature with wholeness is measured and separated into different resources with market price. The most valuable resources in forest for the Japanese government are mines, timbers and camphor, especially camphor. Camphor tree is the representative broad-leaved tree of sub-tropic forest and it distributes in the areas of temperature from15 C to 24 C. Matured camphor tree needs sunshine and its canopy often occupies the top layer of the broad-leaved forest. But young camphor tree prefers suitable shadow, as a result, camphor tree often grows with other tree species and forms a mixed forest. The best habitat for camphor tree is south-faced valley with wet, rich, medium sandy soil. In Taiwan camphor tree distributes in the northern area of 1,200m high, the middle area of 1,700m high, the southern area of 2,000m high. The northern area of 600m to 1200m high, the middle area of 600m to 1000m and the eastern area of 1,000m is suitable for afforestation of young camphor tree. The ratio of camphor content in camphor tree depends on the growing location, the age of tree and the species. The camphor tree growing in the northern Taiwan contains more camphor with good quality (Table 1). Unfortunately, these areas are all Mountain Aborigines’ living territory, especially the Tayal people in the northern mountain.

Table 1: The Distribution of Camphor Tree
 

County	Area	Numbers
Taipei	200,964.10	3,108,138
Shin-Ju	46,894.69	736,246
Tai-Chun	168,112.71	2,595,138
Tai-Nan	125,064.68	21,405
Kao-Shun	29,015.21	23,435
Tai-Dun	15,236.00	288,612
Hui-Lan	24,432.11	481,652
Total	694,719.50	7,344,626

Source: 台灣之樟腦, 台灣銀行經濟研究室

    The earliest investigator of Taiwan’s plants is an English—Robert Fortune in 1854. Due to the limitation of transportation, his collection of plants was confined in plain area or mountains below 1,000 m high. The first literature about Taiwan’s plants was List of Plants of the Island of Formosa written by Robert Swinhoe in 1856. 

    But Taiwan’s modern academic discourse of forestry was established by Japanese scholars, particularly about the investigation of vegetation and indigenous people in the Central Mountain areas. The first Japanese scholar M. Kurita visited Taiwan for botanic research in 1874(呂勝由, 1995: 304). After Sino-Japan war, many Japanese continually to Taiwan for research and gradually built modern knowledge system of Botany, especially focused on sub-tropic and tropic plant species. These academic accomplishments about species, characteristics, distribution and usage of plants contributed to the forest management policy of the colonial government. 山本氏, one of the Japanese scholars had stated that: 

    Several major Japanese universities established their University Experimental Forests in Taiwan for research as well. Most of these forests located in mountain area where the Mountain Aborigines inhabited. Their researches included local plants investigation, afforestation, breeding and introducing new species, timber stand improvement and forest conversion project. These University Experimental Forests included that Tokyo Empire University Experimental Forests founded in Ju-San in 1904 and occupied 57,000 hectares; Kyoto Empire University Experimental Forests was founded in Liu-Gai in 1909 and occupied 60,000 hectares; Hokkaido Empire University Experimental Forests was founded in Pu-Li in 1916 and occupied 7,000 hectares; Kyushu Empire University Experimental Forests was founded in Wen-San in 1925 and occupied 2,130 hectares (Table 2)(洪富文等, 1995: 334-335).

Table 2: The Distribution of Japanese University Experimental Forests in Taiwan
 

University Experimental Forests	Founded Date	Location	Area(hectares)
Tokyo Empire University	1904	Ju-San (in the middle Taiwan)	57,000
Kyoto Empire University	1909	Liu-Gai (in the southern Taiwan)	60,000
Hokkaido Empire University	1916	Pu-Li (in the middle Taiwan)	7,000
Kyushu Empire University	1925	Wen-San (in the northern Taiwan)	2,130
			126,130

    The Governor-General Office of Taiwan formally founded the Department of Forest Investigation in 1905. The Japanese botanic scholar--金平亮三was responsible for this official organization. The research institute now changed from Tokyo to Taipei. An official team assigned by the colonial government was organzied to investigate all vegetative resources deeply and broadly, particularly in the eastern island and the Central Mountain area where was difficult to get access before. In 1917, 金平亮三 published Taiwan Timbers Records which categorizes Taiwan’s trees and was highly recommended by academic community of forestry (呂勝由, 1995: 305). The academic institutes followed the steps of the colonial government invading the mountain area to complete their researches successfully.

    The first local university--Taipei Empire University was founded in 1928 and it symbolized a new academic stage in the colonial history. This new academic institute was not only responsible for the local research in Taiwan, but also responsible for the academic research of South China and Southeast Asia. The research direction of this academic institute focused on tropic agriculture and medicine and its research areas had expanded to South China, Indo-China, Thailand, New-Guinea, Borneo, Java ,Sumatra and so on (陳玉峰, 1995: 124). During the World War Two, the Japanese military invaded Southeast Asian area, Taipei Empire University was responsible for the investigation of the plant resources in these areas as well (呂勝由, 1995: 306).

    Many natural resources were located in the mountain area, the investigation of forest resources and the redefinition of land property in mountain area was soon after the rearrangement land property in plain area from 1898 to 1904. The investigation of land property was companioned with the forest program. According to “Official Forest regulation Rule” implemented in 1895, “The forest and field without official statement of land property is belong to the colonial government”. The Mountain Aborigines who inhabited within “Barbarian Boundary” that was set by the previous Chin Empire did not have any official document like the people living in plain area. On the other hand, the colonial government did not recognize these Mountain Aborigines as national people--Japanese. The Japanese officer 持地 provided an explanation about the nationalization of Mountain Aborigines’ property. He said that Mountain Aborigines were animal not human according to International Law. Even though the Japanese government treated them as national people, they were only rebellions to the Empire. The government could officially oppress these rebellions and their life or death all depended on the government’s policy (林瓊華, 1997: 136). 

    From 1910 to 1914, the Governor-General Office executed the “Five Years Forest Investigation Program”, all the forest land without official property statement was appropriated as national property. Finally, the Department of Forest Investigation classified official forests into three different land categories: “Preserved Forest” (1,094,619 hectares), “Non-Preserved Forest”(77,213 hectares), “Semi-Preserved Forest”(200,072 hectares). Preserved Forest included that the forest was preserved for national security, watershed and public welfare. Non-Preserved Forest meant that the forestland could be used for agricultural production and grazing. Semi-Preserved Forest meant that the national forest for military use; the reserve for livelihood of Mountain Aborigines and resettlement for Mountain Aborigines for. But Non-Preserved Forest was gradually released to Japanese private companies to explore forest resources (徐世榮, 1997: 2-15). 

    The process of land redefinition was a struggle over land right between Mountain Aborigines and the colonial government military force. From 1895 to 1906, the colonial government used “Conciliatory Policy” to assuage the resistance of Mountain Aborigines. The “Fort Line” was set up to prohibit Mountain Aborigines to trespass to the plain area and the “Savage Children Education Institutes” were responsible for the civilizing project. From 1906 to 1909, the Fort Line and the police force pushed further to the mountain area and the barbed wire entanglement was set and electrified. The Fort Line invaded about 470 km far in 1909 and almost all Mountain Aborigines were caged in the mountains. In 1910, the “Five Years Savage Management Project” began and it legitimized military coercion to repress the indigenous resistance, particularly in the northern mountain areas with abundant camphor resources.

    The objectives of rearrangement land property were to establish modern management system under state’s supervision, to get access to forest resources, to secure private property right and to favor Japanese capitalists. After the process of land redefinition and rearrangement, Taiwan’s forest was completely controlled by the colonial government, which had close relation with Japanese enterprises. Consequently, “The monopoly situation of forest resources and the ratio of land ownership of Japanese corporations is more serious than farmland in plain area…… Taidun Takushoku Kaisha (company) owned about 20,000 hectares; Taiwan Takushoku Tea Kaisha owned about 1,000 hectares; Mitsubishi Paper Kaisha owned about 15,000 hectares.……The monopoly agency of national capital owned about 35,000 hectares of camphor forest; the official forests in Ari-Mountain, Ba-Shen-Mountain and Tai-Pin-Mountain were about 83,000 hectares; Empire University Forests owned about 130,000 hectares. The forest resources were almost occupied and monopolized by the Japanese capitalists and national capitals”(矢內原忠雄, 1985: 27).

    The forest management was one of the most important businesses of the colonial government. The land tax and the monopoly of camphor and timbers brought the bulk profits to the colonial government. The first Minister of the Department of Interior 水遵野clearly stated that: ” The production of camphor and agricultural crops, the immigration of Japanese, the exploitation of mine are all related to aboriginal land. The enterprise in Taiwan actually depends on the aboriginal land”. One of the most important resources is camphor tree. According to Japanese estimation, the annual production of camphor in Taiwan could supply the demand of the whole world for a hundred year with adequate planning (林瓊華,1997: 127). Because of the value of camphor, the colonial government immediately implemented “Official Forest and Camphor Production Regulation Rule” to control camphor production in1896. The rules regulated that: first, lands without official statement of property right belong to the colonial government. Second, only people with camphor licenses issued by Chin government could cut camphor trees and produce camphor; the rest were restricted. Third, people with camphor licenses issued by Chin government should follow the regulation of local government and report the situation of camphor production. 

    The investment on camphor production of Japanese capitalists was paralleled with invasion of aboriginal land by the colonial government (Fig.1). The investment location expanded from the southern to the northern area and from low land to high mountain. In 1918, Taiwan Camphor Kaisha united all small natural camphor producers and monopolized the camphor production. Camphor reproduction was monopolized by Refined Camphor Kaisha (矢內原忠雄,1987: 55-56). The trade of camphor was a profitable business that was dominated by English businessmen before Japanese colonization. Most Taiwan’s camphor was exported by Jardine Matheson & Co. In 1896, the Japanese government publicized Camphor Tax Rule and levied camphor tax regularly, this policy resulted in many conflicts within foreign businessmen. In 1899 the colonial government enforced monopoly institution of camphor and entrusted the trade of camphor to Mitsui Bussan Kabushiki Kaisha in 1908. In 1918 Nippon Camphor Kaisha monopolized the trade of natural and raw camphor and the production and trade of refined camphor. The most important use of camphor was for the production of Celluloid, which was also monopolize by Great Nippon Celluloid Kaisha. These monopolized Kaisha were encouraged and subsidized by the Governor-General Office(矢內原忠雄,1987: 34-35). 

    Timber industry is another revenue from forest exploitation. Timber production in Taiwan consisted of cypress, pine, cryptomeria and hemlock. They were used for the construction of buildings, furniture, wagons and ships. Particularly Taiwan’s timbers were excellent for the construction of ships, boats, shrines and temples of lofty high, because gigantic trees were scarce in Japan (Naito, 1937: 182). Timber industry was also monopolized by official enterprise of national capital. The monopoly institution not only contributed to the monopolization of official enterprise, but also benefited private capitalists by official appointed entrust. After military oppression on aboriginal people and invasion toward forest area, many private timber companies expanded their logging and afforestation business as well. The major afforestation companies were Mitsui Bussan Kabushiki Kaisha with 38,000 hectares and the capitalist 倉龍次郎 with 5,000 hectares. The major logging Kaisha were Sakurai Kumiai Kaisha, Taiwan Business Kaisha, Nissan植松Kaisha, Nissan 南幫 Forest Kaisha and so on (劉慎孝, 1968: 41) (林瓊華, 1987:155). Paper manufactures were monopolized by Taiwan Paper Manufacturing Co., LTD. and Taiwan Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha and Mitsubishi Paper Kaisha (矢內原忠雄, 1985: 27), (Naito, 1937: 335) (Table 3). 

Table 3: Detailed Information of some Major Timber and Forest Companies (Naito, 1937: 335-344)
 

	Main Office	Branch	Founded Date	Capital (Japanese Dollars)	Business
Taiwan Paper Manufacturing CO., LTD.	Fukutokuyo, Shirin-sho, Shichisei-gun, Taihoku(Taipei)		1919	240,000	Manufacture and sales of paper, and other manufactures allied thereto.
Taiwan Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha	Marunouchi Building, Tokyo.	Factory: Goketsu-sho, Rato-gun, Taihoku(Taipei).	1955	8,000,000	Manufacture and sales of bond paper, printing paper, ken-tex boards.
Taiwan Development Co., Ltd.	Taihoku(Taipei)		1936	30,000,000	Development of land and natural resources; financing overseas trades, etc.
Taiwan Norin Kabushiki	Taihei-cho, Taihoku(Taipei)	Babutokusha, Kansai-sho, Shinchiku-gun, Shinchiku	1920	2,000,000	Development of land and cattle raising; forestry and lumber milling; dealing in farm products, farm implements and fertilizers, as well as manufaturing thereof; marine and mineral products.
Nippon Takushoku Kabushiki Kaisha	Chureki-gai, Chureki-gun, Shinchiku		1919	2,000,000	Dealing in land development; financing of agriculture and forestry; dealings in farm products.

    The revenue of camphor and timbers were important contribution to fiscal situation of the Governor-General Office. The revenue of camphor was increasing and had achieved its climax around 1919 to1929. The revenue of timber was increasing from 1915 and had achieved its climax around 1940 (Table 4). The market price of camphor was increasing from 1889 (Table 5), consequently, the natural camphor forest was exploited out during the Japanese colonization. The exploitation of camphor and timbers also threatened the livelihood of Mountain Aborigines in these areas.

Table 4: The Revenue of Taiwan’s Camphor and Timbers (1896~1944)
 

Year	Camphor(元)	Timber(元)	Year	Camphor(元)	Timber(元)
1897	-	1,420	1921	3,616,084	3,440,290
1898	-	1,382	1922	10,845,487	4,071,043
1899	917,887	19,966	1923	13,317,777	3,870,346
1900	3,752,268	62,990	1924	10,060,817	3,636,767
1901	3,253,392	81,573	1925	12,016,856	4,083,639
1902	2,528,803	62,204	1926	8,222,547	3,621,116
1903	2,528,218	89,676	1927	-	3,402,887
1904	3,605,885	144,420	1928	9,817,003	3,919,134
1905	4,235,861	114,732	1929	10,678,395	4,020,793
1906	4,865,227	96,048	1930	6,197,273	3,855,607
1907	7,221,853	123,322	1931	6,091,824	3,333,840
1908	2,400,012	118,970	1932	6,666,256	2,945,250
1909	4,427,822	108,569	1933	5,707,762	2,970,157
1910	5,529,558	187,105	1934	8,601,275	3,357,158
1911	4,856,351	180,504	1935	7,601,275	3,320,570
1912	5,814,689	187,095	1936	8,819,657	3,659,239
1913	5,093,491	312,385	1937	8,388,416	4,173,243
1914	5,243,178	365,249	1938	9,423,448	6,213,887
1915	5,172,369	1,816,602	1939	10,400,035	9,831,841
1916	6,740,761	1,538,034	1940	10,480,313	9,043,407
1917	7,135,668	2,013,529	1941	8,747,995	11,159,058
1918	7,041,243	2,196,782	1942	2,999,886	7,943,165
1919	9,117,465	2,830,704	1943	1,874,644	8,956,997
1920	11,859,611	2,772,237	1944	2,612,302	5,476,613

Source：台灣省文獻會(1971) 台灣省通志稿卷三政事志財政篇

Table 5: The Price of Taiwan’s Camphor in the Late Chin Dynasty (1864-1896)(Unit：元)
 

Year	Price/擔	Year	Price/擔
1864	8.00	1881	12.81
1865	15.40	1882	12.23
1866	16.00	1883	17.47
1867	9.00	1884	11.95
1868	9.00	1885	13.89
1869	9.49	1886	16.86
1870	8.22	1887	13.56
1871	10.36	1888	12.05
1872	10.36	1889	16.05
1873	9.17	1890	30.00
1874	8.87	1891	36.50
1875	8.93	1892	41.75
1876	8.71	1893	44.85
1877	10.00	1894	41.00
1878	9.50	1895	68.50
1879	9.76	1896	57.00
1880	12.24

Source：台灣省文獻會(1971) 台灣省通志稿卷三政事志財政篇

    The ecological characteristics of camphor tree are related to the conflicts between Mountain Aborigines and the colonial government. First, the Tayal people, one ethnic group of Mountain Aborigines in Taiwan, inhabited in the northern mountain area of 500m to 1500m high, particularly in I-Lan, Tao-Uan, Shin-Ju and Tai-Chun. Their villages were often located in the south-sided hill where was also abundant with camphor trees of high quality. Moreover, the older camphor tress contains more ratio of camphor. The young camphor tree of afforestation by Japanese capitalists could not satisfy the demand of camphor. They had to exploit the natural camphor trees, this also meant to invade the living territory of Mountain Aborigines, especially in the northern area. Third, because of low ratio of camphor content in camphor tree, the camphor producers had to reduce camphor in cutting and production site to save transportation cost. Because of staying in aboriginal territory, the conflicts with the livelihood of Mountain Aborigines became more serious (林瓊華, 1987:162).(Fig2)(Fig3)

    Furthermore, following the rearrangement and redefinition of forestland, the Governor-General Office tried to resettle some aboriginal villages from high mountain to low land. After camphor tree in low land had been cut, the land became the new site to resettle Mountain Aborigines. This implementation was called “Collective Resettlement Policy”, which was companioned with new cultivation system—“Paddy Land Cultivationism”. Traditional livelihood of Taiwan aborigines depended on deer-hunting and shifting cultivation, which both needed large territory to sustain these activities. Their primitive communist tribal society also contradicted to capitalist production and private ownership. But in order to get the natural resources and forest land within aboriginal territory, the Governor-General Office had to use, besides the military force, the civilizing project—Paddy Land Cultivationism (伊凡.諾幹, 1997: 7-11). 

    The project of Paddy Land Cultivationism was based on the argument that Mountain Aborigines would be easy to be controlled if they were resettled to low land and confined in a fixed cultivation area. The higher productivity of paddy land could also supply more aboriginal people with less land, hence the colonial government could appropriate the surplus land from their resettlement. Besides, the provision of agricultural technology could enhance the dominance of the colonial government, and the rice production made aboriginal people gradually depend on capitalist exchange market as well.

    Many aboriginal people resisted to the coercive policy of land rearrangement and resettlement during Japanese colonization. Wu-Se Event in 1930 was one of the most important occurrences that influenced the colonial policy afterwards. Wu-Se was a demonstrated village located in the middle area of Taiwan. Because of its intersection location, We-Se became an important site for Japanese to control Central Mountain area. Many public institutes were established there, including school, police office, post office, hotel, medicine clinic, and camphor kaisha. It was inhabited by 2,178 Tayal people with 115 Japanese, 111 Chinese and 144 labors in 1930. 

    The Japanese government was the first state power entering tribal society in Central Mountain in history. Step by step, the natural resources was controlled by the colonial government; the land property was redefined; the living and hunting territory was confined; the police became the highest commander in villages and the authority of the original tribal leader was threatened. All these situations brought huge impact on aboriginal tribal society. 

    Wu-Se Event was not an individual happening, actually, it was one big event in a series of resistance. In 1910, several tribes tried to attack the local Japanese policemen, more than 50 people were killed before they took action. In 1920, the tribal leader Salamao was arrested due to his rebellion. In 1924, several tribes planned to revolt the colonial government but failed because someone had leaked secret. 
 

    The direct cause of Wu-Se resistance came from heavy labor service for public infrastructure. The colonial government wanted to build Wu-Se as a demonstrated tribal village, it levied aboriginal labors to engage in construction work. But the schedule of service work did not match the time for the Tayal people to go hunting and grow millet. The labor wage of the Tayal people was lower than other Chinese but the public service assigned to the Tayal people was heavier. The Japanese also cut trees from the Tayal people’s sacred place—“Sizsick” and stimulated inner contradiction between different tribes. 

    The other cause came from the marriage between the Japanese and aboriginal people. The colonial government encouraged the Japanese policeman serving in aboriginal village to marry the daughter of the tribal leader. The Japanese policeman hence could stay in aboriginal village safely and intensify the control of aboriginal people. However, some policemen had already married in Japan and the marriage with aboriginal women often did not have a happy ending. For example, Mona Rudao, the sun of the tribal leader of Mohepo, his younger sister married a Japanese policeman but he disappeared afterwards. All these direct and indirect, structural and personal causes led to Wu-Se Event. 

    In 26^th Oct. 1930, the Tayal people decided to take action in the athletic meeting next day. They used the singing of national song as a signal, rushed into the athletic field and killed 134 Japanese people. After the action, they cut down all the telecommunication and transportation. The colonial government sent troops of military forces, airplanes and used gas bomb to oppress the rebellions. It also encouraged the contradictive tribes to kill the Mohepo tribe to get reward. The risers of Wu-Se Event were 1,236 people, 267 people were killed and 290 people killed themsleves. Many Tayal people hung themselves on trees and the weight of bodies bended the branches. Some aboriginal women killed themselves before their husband to lessen their husbands’ burden. Mona Rudao, the leader of this revolution, he and his wife suicided and his two sons were killed(周婉窈,1998: 124-131). (www.historicalcenter.org.tw/wu03/01/03.htm). 

    Wu-Se Event was a big shock to the colonial government and the whole Taiwan’s society. Some Chinese-Taiwanese intellectuals even wrote poems to memorize these brave aboriginal people privately. However, in order to control Mountain Aborigines more completely, the colonial government executed the “Collective Resettlement Policy” and “Paddy Land Cultivationism” more urgently. The survival people in Wu-Se Event were resettled to other area too (the upriver of Pei-Gun stream). 

    However, the institution and academic discourse of forestry founded by the Empire still remains in present forest management. The contradiction between the KMT government and aboriginal livelihood still exists, but the situation is more serous than before. Some puzzles still need further research, for example, how the colonial legacy influences the forest management in Taiwan afterwards? What is the relationship between the forest enterprises in Taiwan before World War II and the logging industry in Southeast Asia after World War II? (It means the ecological footprints of Japanese transnational companies). These inquiries may help us to understand more clearly about how imperialism, capitalism and modernity influence East Asian and Southeast Asian landscape and the people’s livelihood as well. 
 

Hideo Naito (1937), Taiwan: A Unique Colonial Record, Tokyo: Kokusai Nippon Kyokai. 

Ho Samuel Pao-San (1984), “Colonialism and Development: Korea, Taiwan, and Kwantung” in Ramon H. Myers (eds.), The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1945, pp.347-398, N.J.: Princeton.

Peattie, Mark R. (1984), “The Nan’yo: Japan in the South Pacific, 1885-1945” in Ramon H. Myers (eds.), The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1945, pp.347-398, N.J.: Princeton.

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(www.historicalcenter.org.tw/wu03/01/03.htm). 

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