"Confronting the Last Frontiers of Aboriginal Resistance: Japanese Policies directed toward the Bunun, 1932–1941"

• In Event: Rethinking the History of Wartime Taiwan

Abstract

This paper examines the Japanese colonial policies directed toward the Bunun people from 1932 to 1941. While the Wushe Incident in 1930 is said to be the turning point after which the colonial government began to implement imperialization (kominka) as the primary way to manage colonial subjects in Taiwan, this paper illustrates how the actions directed toward the Bunun people during the early wartime period, cannot be understood solely through the lens of imperialization. By looking at Dahu Ali, the so-called “last barbarian to submit in 1932” and his brother Aziman Siking I will examine how the government officials utilized these two men, formerly labeled kyōban (violent savages who resisted Japanese polices) and transformed them into mediators between the colonial authorities and the Bunun people. I argue that this policy of utilizing and showcasing former kyōban as now trusted liasions was a continuation of policies from the earlier colonial period. A second policy implemented by the colonial government was the forced migration of the Bunun people from the mountainous regions. The Bunun resisted this policy and attacked several police stations, an event known as the Laipunuk Incident of 1941. The Japanese retaliated by using Bunun people from a nearby settlement to lure the instigators who were then incarcerated and executed along with their family members. These interactions demonstrate that the Japanese in the mountains of Taiwan still struggled to dominate the Bunun people who were far from the idealized image of imperialized subjects that the regime wanted to project.

Author

• Kirsten L. Ziomek, Adelphi University