Went back to see my grandparents and went over some of the old photos with them. My Taiwanese Holo is now proficient enough to carry out conversations so I heard many great stories. My grandparents of my mother's sides live in Tainan most of their lives. My grand father lived in Taipei for a period working in the Perfecter Office (today's Presidential Palace) as a civil engineer.

So here are some of the old photos that I reshot using my digital cam... some of them are a little blurry because my hand isn't very steady.





My 舅公 Great uncle, brother of my grandmother. Drafted into service for the IJA, sent out and never returned.



My great grandmother. Mother of my Grandmother.



My grand mother





My grandmother and her nurse school classmates. Dated August of 19th year of Showa. Which is the August of 1944. About 1 year before the war ended. Tainan city hospital was bombed into the ground shortly after that.



My grand father.

Great pictures, Naruwan.

this was the first time that I saw these pictures. I have never seen any old pictures of my grandparents featuring themselves dressed in Japanese clothing or my great uncle who dressed in IJA outfit. So these pictures are new and surprising to me.

Beautiful pictures!

Were Chinese men drafted into the IJA? Is there any way to trace where your great uncle went? Very sad that your family lost him.

But, after seeing your grandfather, now we all know where you get your boyish good looks! heh heh

Kimchee

Very nice pictures. They are a real treasure.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

Han ethnic were drafted. There were Taiwanese who flown Kamakazi planes. But i guess they were all Japanese back then.

My grandma recalled that he was sent to Hai-nan Dao.

haha, my facial feature is extreme similar to my mom's side. I think I only get the height from my dad's side of the family =_=

so when there's a family reunion of my mom's side I get a little freaked out because everyone looks so similar Orz

Thanks for sharing these pictures, Naruwan.

It would be interesting to know whether your great-uncle was sent to Hainan in 1940-1941. According to this article http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4401595.pdf a few Japanese army units involved in the invasion of Malaya and Singapore were trained in jungle warfare on Hainan at that time. There is a possibility your great-uncle was drafted into one of these units and lost his life in Malaya.

I also believe that he died else where. Too bad, it'd be great if I get to know a man who lived through that experience.

Those are great photo's. Thanks for posting them.

I was aware some Taiwanese volunteered to fight in the IJA but being drafted to fight puts a different spin on things & Taiwanese recruitment.

At the beginning there were a surge of volunteers. They begged to be recruited by writing their names in blood. But as the war went on and they realized they Taiwanese were still being regarded as second rate citizens in the army, people stopped volunteering and began being drafted.

Good day Naruwan,
Great Pictures of your family members Naruwan. I think it's very cool that you have these vintage pictures of the members of your family to enjoy and treasure. You should scan them and store it digitally for your future kids or your future kids’ kids to look at.

I am definitely trying to do so... my bestest fear is these photos will get so fragile that one day they'd gone.

I think my grandparents had more pictures taken of when they were young than my own parents. But my parents grew up in the hardest times in KMT occupation. I myself had tons of pictures from birth. I lived through a much better period of KMT occupation. In a place where thing changed so fast like Taiwan, these photos are important historical evidnece of what the people experienced.

According to some sources,Taiwan's aboriginals were classified " 2nd class " for being natives of the island & Han-Chinese as " 3rd class ".

This racial-classification was a copycat of Western Imperial powers of that time,most likely Britain's.

Actually, my grandfather said that the aborigines were treated worse than Han Taiwanese- their tribes and villages were separated and broken up, and they were confined to the mountains, unable to leave without a special pass from the Japanese.

over all, aside from 1992 to today, the Aboriginals had the best treatment during the Japanese era.

Yes, there were many conflicts but the Japanese actually really respected the aboriginals. Many in-depth studies of the Aboriginal culture and languages were done during those days. Had it not been for the Japanese scholars hard work, many of Taiwanese Aboriginal culture and languages would have been completely lost in history due to the oppression/discrimination/total neglect of the KMT rule.

The Han Taiwanese/Chinese treated the Aboriginals pretty badly with a complete disregard of their cultures and traditions. But things are different today. Where a lot of people considers Aboriginal culture to be something worth preserving and be proud of.

The Japanese had problems with the aboriginals because they tried to change them. Forbidding head hunting was done by the Japanese. Then they met further resistance when they tried start chopping down the Cypress forests. Without the Japanese doing all these work, I think KMT would be in for big a** whopping and shocked when they try to venture into the mountains and rip the resources like they did during the entire 50s to 80s.

I am thinking about joining an Aboriginal Hunting Training, but it's in conflict with my mountain hiking schedule >_<~

Though people have this notion that Taiwanese aboriginals only lives in the mountains. Which is a myth.

Most of the Taiwanese aboriginals lived on flat plains. They either were forced to Sinicify or leave their ancestrial lands or be killed. Many of the West Coast Flat land Aboriginals migrated to the East Coast, much like what the US did to their Native Americans. That is why many tribes, including Kavalan, Siraya, Mataoka now lives in the east Coast, even though when they lived in the West Coast when the Dutch and Chinese first recorded their presence.

I.E.
Without the prior Japanese massacres, displacement, establishment of resource extraction infrastructures and displays of force the KMT would have a more difficult time. But the KMT would succeed, regardless, in displacing the natives. It would just take a longer time. They have no qualms shooting people in the street, and they would have no qualms killing people in other places.
And the blame would lie squarely on the KMT waishengren again for destroying Taiwanese culture.
But no, history didn't go that way.

But IMO, taking advantage of the aborigines is more of an ingrained notion of innate superiority over natives.
The very pragmatic theory that city builders would prevail over hunter gatherers.
And the fact that these people have chosen to resign to their fates to guard their cultural distinctiveness.
Over time, perhaps within the next half a century, all we know would be on books, photographs and videos.
Its already an irreversible decline. We keep them as we keep pets.
We allow a group of people to live their indigenous way of lives, and keep them as a cultural exhibit.
Just as how the CCP maintain a body of lamas to pray in their temples.

To be pragmatic, they'll never have their land back, nor their original way of life, nor any design of improvement.
They're relics of human cultures, stuck in history for our own amusement, the city builders.

Any chance your uncle's "soul" (or even remains) or enshrined at Yasukuni? I think even non-Japanese soldiers are placed there. I remember some news a few months ago about Japan giving South Korea the remains of a couple of Korean soldiers who had died while in the IJA.