Visualizing the Past: Policing in The Japanese Colonial Period

I visited Taiwan New Cultural Movement Museum twice in the past week. The Museum is a historical building, constructed in 1932 as the new site of Taihoku North Police Station (TNPS) which had grown significantly since its inception in 1920 and needed a larger site.

The building has been re-purposed multiple times after the end of World War II (which marked the end of the Japanese colonial period for Taiwan), and finally became a museum in 2018. It hosts exhibits, lectures, theaters and other cultural events year round with free admission, and has been my favorite museum. The current exhibit is about the police system of Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, with four lectures scheduled for last weekend.

Thus, I enrolled in the lecture taking place last Sunday morning, with two speakers covering two topics, "tele-communication systems" and "governing and isolation policy for indigenous peoples", respectively.

The lecture was very informative, particularly the governing and isolation policy for indigenous peoples, who had for centuries been forced by newcomers to leave their habitats in plains, and to settle in the mountainous areas that account for two thirds of Taiwan in size. The police were charged with exclusive authority and responsibilities to govern indigenous peoples under the policy.

Among other things, I was surprised to learn wire fences were widely installed to contain restricted areas in the mountains, which were the traditional hunting space of indigenous peoples. Electricity was conducted through the wire to scare off "illegal crossings" by indigenous peoples. Still, electricity was something high-tech back then and ordinary people had little knowledge about it, so casualties did occur. Ironically,  however, per the available statistics among those who died of being electrified, there were more plicemen (mostly Japanese who had to maintain the electric wire fence system) than indigenous people (for illegal crossing).

Then, last Wednesday I went to the museum again to visit the exhibit. A life-size illustration board depicting the police stood at the entrance, with a sword held on one hand and prayer beads held on the other, as omnipotent as a buddha, a judge and a protector of people in their daily life. 

The modern police system of Japan was introduced in the Meiji era. It was developed by combining the police systems that prevailed in Continental Europe and the UK at the time, with the core value of the police defined as 'the protector of citizens'.

With Taiwan ceded to Japan in 1895 following the end of the First Sino-Japanese War and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the police department was founded under the Government-General of Taiwan, the Empire of Japan's first overseas colonial government. As part of its decentralization efforts, the Government- General of Taiwan delegated its authority to Taihoku Prefecture, under which two police stations were established in 1920, with the North Police Station located in Dadoucheng, which would be relocated to a new site in 1933, the same location where the museum is today.

The North Police Station existed between 1920 and 1945, which was the second half of the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan, during which there were 12 chiefs serving as the head of the police station. These chiefs were all born in Japan proper with different specializations and multiple disciplines. They were transferred to Taiwan to lead the North Police Station, laying a sound foundation for the police system in Taipei 

Deemed as the protector of citizens, the judge and the omnipotent buddha, police were involved widely and deeply in people's daily life, so its new recruits had to undergo rigorous training in a variety of disciplines.

Among the vintage photos of police new recruits on display, I was surprised to find Tang Te-chang, also known as Tokushō Sakai, son to Japanese father and a Taiwanese mother, who would become a lawyer after 10 years of service in the police, and was killed in the 228 Massacre of 1947. Tang is considered a martyr of the free and democratic Taiwan. In his hometown, Tainan City, a memorial park was built, with Chung-cheng Road partly renamed as Tang Te-chang Boulevard in honor of him. 

Police were instrumental in the campaign of Japanization commencing in 1937, under which Taiwanese were encouraged to embrace a Japanese identity by changing their Taiwanese names to Japanese names, and this paper on display was an application letter for name changes. It's understandable, though, that after World War II ended in 1945, there would be applications for the opposite: changing their Japanese names back to Taiwanese names.

The silhouettes of police exhibited here symbolize their ever presence in people's life and livelihood, covering the dimensions of economy, justice, politics, security, education, health care, culture, and religion, among others.

As part of its war effort, the police were responsible for drill training, coordination and evacuation procedures in response to the Allies bombing missions carried out over Taiwan before the end of World War II. On display here is a poster requiring no light emitted from households at night, so reconnaissance planes or bombers flying overhead would not identify targets to attack.

After visiting the exhibit, I strolled around the historical neighborhoods of Dadoucheng, and found a chain coffee shop with a great window view. Enjoying my coffee and sightseeing, I also reflected on what I learned through visualizing the past at the museum.  There's still so much to learn about my country and the land I have lived on for 65 years, and I will surely come back to the museum again soon.