The Wushe Incident or Musha Incident (Japanese: and Chinese: 霧社事件 Hepburn: Musha Jiken?, pinyin: Wùshè Shìjiàn; Wade–Giles: Wu4-she4 Shih4-chien4; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bū-siā Sū-kiāⁿ), also known as the Wushe Rebellion and several other similar names, began in October 1930 and was the last major uprising against colonial Japanese forces in Taiwan. In response to long-term oppression by Japanese authorities, the Seediq indigenous group in Wushe (Musha) attacked the village, killing over 130 Japanese. In response, the Japanese led a relentless counter-attack, killing over 1,000 Seediq in retaliation. The handling of the incident by the Japanese authorities was strongly criticised, leading to many changes in aboriginal policy.
Armed resistance to Japanese imperial authority had been dealt with harshly, as evident in the responses to previous uprisings such as the Ta-pa-ni Incident; this resulted in a cycle of rebel attacks and strict Japanese retaliation. However, by the 1930s, armed resistance had largely been replaced by organised political and social movements among the younger Taiwanese generation. Direct police involvement in local administration had been relaxed, many harsh punishments were abolished, and some elements of self-government, albeit of questionable effectiveness, had been introduced to colonial Taiwan.
However, a different approach was used in order to control Taiwan's indigenous peoples. Aborigines were still designated as "seiban" (生蛮 or 生蕃?, "raw barbarians" or "wild tribespeople"), and treated as savages rather than equal subjects. Tribes were 'tamed' through assimilation, the process of disarming traditional hunting tribes and forcing them to relocate to the plains and lead an agrarian existence. Further resistance was then dealt with by military campaigns, isolation and containment. In order to access natural resources in mountainous and forested indigenous-controlled areas, Governor-General Sakuma Samata adopted a more aggressive terrain policy, attempting to pacify or eradicate aboriginal groups in areas scheduled for logging within five years; by 1915, this policy had been largely successful, although resistance still existed in more remote areas.
The Seediq aborigines in the vicinity of Wushe had been considered by Japanese authorities to be one of the most successful examples of this "taming" approach, with Chief Mouna Rudao being one of 43 indigenous leaders selected for a tour of Japan a few years earlier. However, resentment still lingered, due largely to police misconduct, the continuing practice of forced labor, and the ill treatment of indigenous beliefs and customs.
In the days immediately prior to the incident, chief Mouna Rudao held a traditional wedding banquet for his son Daho Mona, during which animals were slaughtered and wine was prepared and drunk. A Japanese police officer named Katsuhiko Yoshimura was on patrol in the area, and was offered a cup of wine by Daho Mouna as a symbolic gesture. The officer refused, saying that Daho Mouna's hands were soiled with blood from the slaughtered animals. Daho Mouna attempted to take hold of the officer, insisting he participate, and the officer struck him with his stick. Fighting ensued, and the officer was injured. Chief Mouna Rudao attempted to apologize by presenting a flagon of wine at the officer's house, but was rejected. The simmering resentment among the Seediq in Wushe was finally pushed to the limit.
On October 27, 1930, hundreds of Japanese converged on Wushe for an athletics meet at the Taiwan-Chinese Musyaji Elementary School. Shortly before dawn, Mouna Rudao led over 300 Seediq warriors in a raid of strategic police sub-stations to capture weapons and ammunition. They then moved on the elementary school, concentrating their attack on the Japanese in attendance. A total of 134 Japanese, including women and children, were killed in the attack. Two Han Taiwanese were also mistakenly killed, one of whom was a girl wearing a Japanese kimono.
The Japanese authorities responded with unprecedentedly harsh military action. A press blackout was enforced, and Governor General Eizo Ishizuka ordered a counter-offensive of two thousand troops to be sent to Wushe, forcing the Seediq to retreat into the mountains and carry out guerrilla attacks by night. Unable to root out the Seediq despite their superior numbers and firepower, the Japanese faced a political need for a faster solution. Consequently, Japan's army air corps in Taiwan ordered bombing runs over Wushe to smoke out the rebels, dropping tear gas bombs in what was allegedly the first such use of chemical warfare in Asia. The uprising was swiftly quelled, with any remaining resistance suppressed by the third week of December 1930; Mouna Rudao had committed suicide on November 28, but the uprising had continued under other leaders. Of the 1,200 Seediq directly involved in the uprising, 644 died, 290 of which committed suicide to avoid dishonor.
Due to internal and external criticism of their handling of the incident, Governor-General Kamiyama and Goto Fumio, his chief civil administrator, were forced to resign in January 1931. However, Kamiyama's replacement, Ota Masahiro, also took a harsh approach to controlling Taiwan's indigenous peoples: certain tribes were disarmed and left unprotected, giving their aboriginal enemies an opportunity to annihilate them on behalf of the Japanese administration. Around 500 of the Seediq involved in the Wushe Incident surrendered and were subsequently confined to a village near Wushe. However, on April 25, 1931, indigenous groups working with the Japanese authorities attacked the village, killing all remaining males over the age of 15. This came to be known as the "Second Wushe Incident", and Ota was recalled in March 1932.
However, the uprising did affect a change in the authorities' attitudes and approaches towards aborigines in Taiwan. Wushe had been regarded as the most "enlightened and compliant" of the aboriginal territories, and the colonial power's inability to prevent the massacre provoked a fear of similar nationalist movements starting in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan itself. A change in policy was clearly needed. Ching suggests that the ideology of imperialisation (kominka) became the dominant form of colonial control; aborigines became represented as imperial subjects on equal footing with other ethnic groups in Taiwan, and were upgraded in status from "raw savages" to takasagozoku (高砂族?, "tribal peoples of Taiwan"). Furthermore, Japanese education was intensified, tying Taiwanese civility to Japanese culture and loyalty to the emperor in the younger generation. In this way, the Japanese authorities were able to play the Taiwanese-Chinese and indigenous peoples against each other to encourage competing in loyalty to the colonial forces. During World War II, some fought for the Imperial Japan and wore their identity to battle zone.
After the Japanese surrendered to the Allied forces at the end of World War II, and Taiwan returned to the Chinese rule, the Chinese Nationalist government gradually sought liberal redress and reconciliation policies for all the indigenous peoples, including their land claims and cultural protection.
In the media
The Wushe Incident was also depicted in the 2011 Taiwanese film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale.
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- "Wushe Incident - Encyclopedia of Taiwan". Retrieved November 23, 2012.
- Denny Roy, "The Japanese Occupation", in Denny Roy, Taiwan: A Political History, p. 35.
- Harry J. Lamley, "Taiwan Under Japanese Rule, 1895-1945: The Vicissitudes of Colonialism", in Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., Taiwan: A New History (New York, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2007), p. 224.
- Roy, Taiwan: A Political History, p. 49.
- Ibid., p. 51.
- Chien-Chao, A History of Taiwan (Gambalunga, Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali, 2000), p. 222.
- Roy, Taiwan: A Political History, p. 51.
- The Takao Club, "The Mouna Rudao Files: Wushe Incident" <http://www.takaoclub.com/monaludao/wusheincident.htm>, accessed September 21, 2011.
- Hung Chien-Chao, A History of Taiwan, p. 222.
- Eric Croddy, "China's Role in the Chemical and Biological Disarmament Regimes", The Nonproliferation Review Spring 2002: 16, <http://cns.miis.edu/npr/pdfs/91crod.pdf>, accessed September 24, 2011, p. 17. The Takao Club. <http://www.takaoclub.com/monaludao/wusheincident.htm>.
- The Takao Club. <http://www.takaoclub.com/monaludao/wusheincident.htm>.
- Hung Chien-Chao, A History of Taiwan, p. 223.
- Denny Roy, Taiwan: A Political History, p. 51.
- Leo Ching, "Savage Construction and Civility Making: The Musha Incident and Aboriginal Representations in Colonial Taiwan", Positions Asia Critique 8:3 (2000): 795, p. 799.
- Ibid, pp. 802-804, 797.