Wushe Incident

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The "Wùshè Incident" (Chinese and Japanese: 霧社事件, pronounced Wùshè Shìjiàn in Mandarin and Musha Jiken in Japanese) was the biggest and the last rebellion against Japanese colonial forces in Taiwan, resulting in the massacre of the Taiwanese aborigine group, Atayal in 1930.

The cause of the rebellion is attributed to Japanese policy toward Taiwanese natives. In Japanese policy, Taiwanese tribal natives were classified as "aboriginal", and a separate lower class in comparison to the Komin (imperial citizens). Forced resettlement, oppression of tribal practices as well as forced labour and exploitation by Japanese police forces caused a large amount of hostility towards the Japanese, particularly their police forces, from the native tribes.

A prelude to the incident began on October 7, 1930. A police officer named Katuhiko Yoshimura was on patrol, and came to oversee the tribal wedding ceremony of the Atayal Chief Rudao Bai's grandson. The groom of the ceremony offered a traditional glass of wine to the officer, who refused, citing that he would not take it from "hands soiled with the blood of animals". The groom pulled him aside, and insisted that he take part, lest insulting him. According to the testimony of the officer, "in an attempt to free myself from those unhygienic hands", he "accidentally" hit the groom twice with a stick. A fight quickly broke out, resulting in the wounding of the officer.

The groom attempted to make amends the next morning, but the officer refused a gift of wine. Very quickly, relations between the Atayal and the Japanese broke down.

Before the dawn of October 27, 1930, the Atayal Chief Rudao Bai had assembled a group of 1200 tribal members, and assaulted an athletic festival held in Wushe (Musyaji) Primary School near Puli, Nantou and attended by many Japanese. 134 Japanese nationals, and two Taiwanese were killed. 215 Japanese nationals were injured. Further raids were conducted on police outposts, postal stations and other colonial offices to acquire firearms and ammunition for a revolution.

Japanese retaliation was swift. Police, as well as military forces, deployed a modern military arsenal and used rival Atayal tribes to root out rebel Atayal. Tear gas was extensively used and in mid November the Japanese started using poison gas canisters dropped from aircraft on the lightly armed Atayal. On December 1, 1930, Chief Rudao Bai committed suicide. The uprising continued for another three weeks, lasting a total of 50 days.

According to Japanese record, 700 Atayal were killed or committed suicide, and 500 surrendered. A further massacre occurred, as surrendered Atayal were killed by rival Atayal who fought on the Japanese side, despite the surrendered forces widely considered to be under the protection of the Japanese police force. About 200 were said to be killed. The remaining rebel survivors were relocated to small reservations and forced to live under strict supervision by the police.

The Wushe area, where the rebellion occurred, was supposed to be an example of successful implementation of Japanese native policy, an over-all well constructed cohabitation. The rebellion, in turn, shocked the Japanese colonial government. Native policy in the area was quickly revised. The designation of native Taiwanese was upgraded from Barbarian(蕃人) to Takasago People(高砂族) and classified in rank with other colonial ethnic groups.

This in turn proved to be a mixed blessing. When Nationalist Chinese forces took over, the native tribes were considered to be sympathetic to the previous colonial power and the new rulers instituted a strict re-education campaign.