<strong>June 13 to June 19</strong>
Despite Taiwan being famous for its oolong tea during the late Qing Dynasty, the Japanese hoped to turn its new colony into “another Darjeeling.” The suggestion was made by the Japanese consul to Mumbai, Go Daigoro, a year after they took over Taiwan in 1895.
Indian Black tea was gaining popularity on the international market after the British systematized and mechanized large scale production in the country’s northeast, causing a steep drop in sales of other varieties of tea from East Asia. Unorganized and uneven production in Taiwan with many producers cutting corners to save
<strong>May 23 to May 29</strong>
After holding out for seven years, more than 250 Yunlin-based resistance fighters were finally persuaded to surrender in six separate ceremonies on May 25, 1902. The Japanese had subdued most of the Han Taiwanese within six months of their arrival in 1895, but intermittent unrest continued in Yunlin, the Tieguoshan (鐵國山) guerillas caused the new regime much headache through at least 1901.
These surrender ceremonies were common and usually conducted peacefully, but the Japanese had different plans for these troublemakers. Once the event concluded, they gunned down every single attendee with machine guns.
Only Chien Shui-shou
<strong>May 9 to May 15</strong>
Poisoned dagger in hand, Korean national Cho Myeong-ha pushed aside the cheering schoolchildren and lunged at Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi’s roofless car. He swiped once and missed. As the car sped up, Cho threw the dagger. But its unclear what happened next on the streets of Taichu (Taichung) on May 14, 1928.
According to post-war Korean sources, the dagger grazed the prince and inflicted a minor injury before hitting the driver in the back. The poison soon spread through Kuniyoshi’s body, and he died the following January in Tokyo. Japanese accounts, however, maintain that
<strong>Nov. 22 to Nov. 28</strong>
In Chu Tien-jen’s (朱點人) short story Autumn Letter (秋信), protagonist Dou Wen (斗文) arrives in Taipei in October 1935 and is shocked to see that a colossal, modern concrete building had replaced the Qing Dynasty Provincial Administration Hall.
Only the building’s exterior was complete, but it was enough to serve as the main exhibition space for the extravagant Taiwan Exhibition, held to showcase Japanese colonial achievements in Taiwan to the world.
Then-Fujian provincial governor Chen Yi (陳儀) was among the international guests for the exhibition as the Republic of China’s (ROC) representative, marveling