1. Hualien Port in the Eyes of Governor-General Den Kenjiro With the Truku being ‘pacified’, Japanese rule gradually became stable, thus allowing the Government-General of Taiwan to focus on the development of the eastern region. In 1919, Den Kenjiro (田健治郎, 1855-1930), the first civilian governor-general, took office. On April 20, 1920, he landed at Hualien Port on his official inspection tour by ship and recorded in his diary his impression of Hualien Port, his experience of the inconvenience of getting there, and his conviction of transportation development in eastern Taiwan as of top priority “At eight o'clock in the morning, the ship entered Hualien Port. Despite being called a port, it is actually in the open sea. The difficulty of passengers boarding, goods loading and unloading in autumn and winter is beyond description. It is not uncommon that regular ferries, unable to anchor, sail away without passengers or goods……We had to transfer to a small boat and headed towards the shore. Strong tide averted us from landing. Dozens of aborigines jumped naked into the sea, took advantage of the tide and dragged the boat ashore. This is typical of Hualien Port……Despite years of colonial rule, inconvenience of sea and land transportation, malaria and scrub typhus, conflicts with the aborigines have hindered Japanese immigrants from settling here, resulting in labor shortage. In view of the desolate situation, development of transportation is absolutely of necessity and urgency.”
Figure 5 Diary of Den Kenjiro dated April 20, 1920
Figure 6 A vertical scroll with calligraphic inscription of a seven-character quatrain written by Den Kenjiro in 1920
Although named as a port, Hualien had no natural harbor. Before the port was constructed, the coastal area in Nanbin, where the present-day Taipingyang Park is located, was the main site for communication with the outside world. Supplies were transported by steamship shuttling between Keelung and Kaohsiung 12 times each month. However, the waters along the Nanbin coast were shallow and large ships could not dock. Instead, they had to anchor distant from the shore and transported passengers and goods to the land by small boats or barges, which were often tossed and rocked by the rolling waves while waiting to be pulled ashore. Moreover, in the absence of man-made facilities for sheltering from wind and waves, transportation was often impeded by storms. The rough sea made it impossible for transfer to barges or for landing despite the destination in sight. Even upon landing, lots of laborers were needed to assist in towing the barges and unloading the cargoes. The poor infrastructure and inadequate port facilities increased both the risk and costs of cargo transport, which was one of the factors hindering the industrial development of Hualien.
Figure 7 Postcard showing coastal area of Hualien during Japanese colonial era
Figure 8 A monument at Hualien in commemoration of Eguchi Ryosaburo Source: Eastern Taiwan Prospect, Guo Shuang-fu Collection (T1022), 1935. |