Wushe Incident - Background

Background

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 However, by the 1930s, armed resistance had largely been replaced by organised political and social movements among the younger Taiwanese generation.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.