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Today known as Taiwan, Formosa is a large
island (14,000 square
miles or 36,000 km2) located off the southeast coast of the Chinese
mainland. It had been part of the Japanese
Empire
since the Sino-Japanese War of 1896, when its seizure as the first
Japanese colonial territory was more opportunistic than strategic.
Except for lingering resistance by indigenous tribesmen
in the deep interior, the island was swiftly pacified: The Treaty of Shimonoseki that transferred
sovereignty to Japan had an unusual clause giving the Chinese on the
island two years to leave rather that accept Japanese rule,which was intented to eliminate potential troublemakers. The initial
wave of Army administrators and civilian carpetbaggers was soon
replaced by the administration of Governor-General Kodama Gentaro and
his brilliant civil administrator, Goto Shinpei.
During the next
decade, Formosa was transformed into a laboratory for showing off the
Japanese skills at modernization, modeled after Japan's own
modernization in the Meiji Era. Goto took the time to understand local customs, and adapted local institutions such as the pao-chia village militia to help maintain order. Careful thought went into planning the development of a local sugar industry, which soon became self-sufficient. However, Law 63 (Rokusan hō)
giving the governor-general authority to legislate for the colony was
repeatedly attacked as infringing on the legislative monopoly of the
Japanese Diet.
By 1941, the island had sizable military bases and some industrial development. It supplied Japan with most of its sugar (something like a million tons a year) and small amounts of bauxite. The terrain is mountainous except for the western coastal plain, where most of the population lives, and the climate is subtropical. The most important cities were Taipeh on the north coast and and Takao (Kaohsiung) on the southwest coast. The island was ruled by a governor-general, who held the highest bureaucratic rank (shin'nin) and was often a vice admiral or lieutenant general, and who was personally recommended to the Emperor by the prime minister on the advice of the genro and Army leadership. The governor-general was Admiral Hasegawa Kiyoshi when war broke out and General Ando Rikichi from 30 August 1944.
The native Formosans (Takasago to the Japanese) were an Austronesian
people predating the first Chinese settlements in the 17th century.
The Japanese initially confined the takasago
to large reserves in the deep interior, where they were literally
fenced off, with a special permit required for anyone to enter or leave
the reserves. Amost 50% of the colonial police force was directed
towards policing the aborigines as late as 1931. Much of the policing
took the form of encouraging the aborigines to "switch from firearms to
peaceful agricultural implements" (quoted inMyers and Peattie 1984.)
This was largely successful, with acreage under aborigine cultivation
more than doubling and rice yield more than tripling.
The takasago numbered about 140,000 in 1929 and were relatively loyal to the Japanese, and takasago civilian volunteers at Buna proved to be excellent carriers and scouts. The Japanese compared them favorably with Koreans, who they accused of eating the rice they were supposed to be carrying along the Kokoda Trail, whereas the takasago reputedly would starve rather than open the bags of rice entrusted to them. Later takasago recruits were organized into companies under Japanese officers who were trained in guerrilla warfare. The Allies first encountered these units at Leyte when 1 Raiding Company carried out a suicidal attack from aircraft deliberately crash landed on Brauen airfield.
A total of 1,360,423 Formosans volunteered for military
service in 1942-1943, often under pressure from recruiters. Only 3,505
of these were inducted into regular Japanese Army units. Formosans were
not subject to conscription until January 1945.
By late 1944 the island had 15 Army airfields, 11 Navy air stations, and two seaplane bases.
U.S. Navy commander Ernest J. King favored landing on Formosa rather than Luzon as the ultimate objective of the Pacific counteroffensive. He was opposed by Douglas MacArthur and, surprisingly, his own Pacific Fleet commander, Chester W. Nimitz. MacArthur's staff estimated that the conquest of Formosa would require nine divisions and more service troops than would be available until after the defeat of Germany. The decision to invade Luzon was made by Roosevelt himself, who was persuaded in part by MacArthur's argument that it was a political imperative to liberate the U.S. commonwealth. The Joint Chiefs of Staff formalized this decision on 3 October 1944, following the recommendations of the San Francisco conference of 29 September — 1 October 1945.
Battle of Formosa. From 10 to 14 October 1944, Halsey conducted a series
of strikes against Okinawa and Formosa
to interdict Japanese air reinforcements to the Philippines. The strikes
against Formosa, beginning on 11 October, caught Japanese Combined Fleet commander Toyoda on Formosa, and his chief
of staff, Kusaka,
immediately ordered preliminary preparations to execute Sho, the Japanese Navy's
contingency plan for an Allied move against the inner Japanese defense
perimeter. Kusaka also ordered
the air groups from the remaining Japanese carriers to
deploy to Formosa. As a result, these air groups were savaged and their
carriers rendered toothless for the upcoming Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Halsey's strikes destroyed between 550 and 600 Japanese aircraft and
sank about 40 merchant ships
at the cost of 78 Allied aircraft. The
large aircraft maintenance facility at Okayama
was heavily bombed by Superfortresses
of 20 Air
Force, while medium and
heavy bombers from 14 Air Force
struck Hong Kong. However, the
Japanese managed to slip eight torpedo
bombers past the American fleet defenses at sunset on 13 October
1944 and badly damage heavy
cruiser Canberra,
flooding both engine rooms. Rather than scuttle the ship, Halsey
decided to tow the cripple to safety while conducting an additional
unscheduled strike against Formosa. That night, another Japanese dusk
raid put a torpedo into light
cruiser Houston,
flooding all engineering spaces. Again, Halsey chose to tow the cripple
to safety rather than scuttle. The two ships were joined by escorts and
organized into "CripDiv1" for their long tow to Ulithi. The Japanese sent several
strikes against the cripples, inflicting very light damage from a bomb hit on carrier Franklin
and scoring another torpedo hit
on Houston. This nearly
finished the cruiser, but
excellent damage control
saved the ship.
At this point, based on Japanese radio broadcasts claiming a great
naval victory off Formosa, Halsey decided to use the cripples as bait
to ambush
any sortie by the main strength of the Japanese Navy. Thus they became
"BaitDiv1", a play on BatDiv1 (Battleship Division 1). However, the
Japanese sent out only a
small force of cruisers and destroyers
to "mop up" the "shattered" U.S.
Fleet, and its commander, Shima,
sensed a trap and withdrew before his force could be ambushed.
Formosa remained in Japanese hands until the surrender.
References
Australian War Memorial (accesssed 2011-6-18)
Jowett (2002)
Morison
(1958, 1959)
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