The Takasago Volunteers

yuanzhumin · 1st April 2010, 01:08 PM

The Takasago volunteers

Well, a very dear friend authorized me to reproduce hereafter, in this thread, a copy of the original picture he owns. I share this photo with you, because I would like to find more infos on this subject, and I hope it could be possible with your help.

On this picture, you can see Japanese troops from the Second World War, but there is something that distinguish them: each of them hold on its side a Taiwanese aboriginal sword. The fact is that they are part of the Takasago Volunteers, a special force/scout corp made up of Taiwanese Austronesian men that fought for the Japanese Emperor. As we can see while observing their very characteristic knives, these men are belonging to the Atayal tribe.

This picture brings back a neglected page of the history and more precisely the story of these aboriginal men that joined the Imperial Japanese Army to fight in the Pacific. Today, we still don’t know exactly how many they were, where they fought and how many died. We don’t have much documents or photos on them.

This subject is still very sensitive in Taiwan and elsewhere, and my purpose is not to hurt anybody but just to try to have some truth emerges, and if not, I just intend to give them some kind of homage --- not only to them but also to all the men that fought and died in this terrible conflict, whatever the side.

About the Takasago volunteers, see the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takasago_Volunteers

1st April 2010, 01:08 PM	#1
yuanzhumin Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ex-Taipei, Taiwan, now in Shanghai, China Posts: 180	The Takasago Volunteers The Takasago volunteers Well, a very dear friend authorized me to reproduce hereafter, in this thread, a copy of the original picture he owns. I share this photo with you, because I would like to find more infos on this subject, and I hope it could be possible with your help. On this picture, you can see Japanese troops from the Second World War, but there is something that distinguish them: each of them hold on its side a Taiwanese aboriginal sword. The fact is that they are part of the Takasago Volunteers, a special force/scout corp made up of Taiwanese Austronesian men that fought for the Japanese Emperor. As we can see while observing their very characteristic knives, these men are belonging to the Atayal tribe. This picture brings back a neglected page of the history and more precisely the story of these aboriginal men that joined the Imperial Japanese Army to fight in the Pacific. Today, we still don’t know exactly how many they were, where they fought and how many died. We don’t have much documents or photos on them. This subject is still very sensitive in Taiwan and elsewhere, and my purpose is not to hurt anybody but just to try to have some truth emerges, and if not, I just intend to give them some kind of homage --- not only to them but also to all the men that fought and died in this terrible conflict, whatever the side. About the Takasago volunteers, see the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takasago_Volunteers Attached Images