江口氏紀念碑

June 16th, 2024

Last updated June 23rd, 2026

A newly-manufactured (and already weatherworn) torii stands in front of the reinstalled monument. — A newly-manufactured (and already weatherworn) *torii* stands in front of the reinstalled monument.

Along the waterfront in the Port of Hualien stands a monument dedicated to the memory of Eguchi Ryōzaburō (江口良三郎), a career soldier, policeman, and veteran of the 1914 Truku War (太魯閣戰爭) who headed the colonial government’s Aborigine Affairs Section (理蕃課) before serving as the fifth sub-prefect of Karenkō Prefecture (花蓮港廳), now Hualien County, from 1920 until 1926. He is credited locally with promoting the construction of the Port of Hualien (花蓮港), privately financing the Eguchi Jetty (江口突堤), and contributing to the development of industry in the city.

The front of the monument reads: In Praise of Governor Eguchi (江口廳長頌德). — The front of the monument reads: *In Praise of Governor Eguchi* (江口廳長頌德).

Both the stone stele and the bronze statue originally erected in 1927 were lost in the tumult of the early post-war years. When the parkland was first surveyed for development in the mid-2000s the stele was found discarded in a ditch. In 2008 the county government restored the stele, mounted it on a new base, and built a wooden torii, completing what was initially known as Eguchi Ryōzaburō Memorial Park (江口良三郎紀念公園). Unfortunately the stele was mounted in such a way that the bottom of the inscription on the back is difficult to discern; the dedication features a date and attributes the monument to the residents of Milun (米崙)¹, many of them presumably Japanese.

An oblique look at this contested monument by the waterfront in Hualien City.

The commemoration is silent on the violent side of Eguchi’s career: in 1921 he orchestrated the Tusiu Massacre (托西佑慘案), also known as the Second Dahun Incident (第二次大分事件), luring the Bunun (布農族) community of Tusiu (托西佑社) to the Dahun Police Garrison (大分駐在所) under a promise of reconciliation, seizing the twenty-three men who came to surrender their weapons, burning their settlements, and having the captives secretly executed before dawn². This treachery set off another 12 years of Bunun resistance, driving Dahu Ali (拉荷·阿雷) and his forces to relocate across the mountains to Tamahu Village in Kaohsiung. This monument qualifies as a particularly egregious instance of a colonial official commemorated for civic works while his role in the subjugation and killing of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples goes mostly unmentioned.

On the back, partly obscured by the base of the monument: erected on June 25, 1927 by the residents of Milun (昭和二年六月二十五日 / 米崙在住者一同). — On the back, partly obscured by the base of the monument: *erected on June 25, 1927 by the residents of Milun* (昭和二年六月二十五日 / 米崙在住者一同).

In 2013 the monument and its informational plaques along the path were defaced with “1937.7.7” in red paint, likely a reference to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident (七七事變). The culprits were never identified but were presumed by the authorities to be Chinese tourists. Another incident occurred in January 2019, when a variety of somewhat less incoherent anti-Japanese slogans were scrawled across the plaques, again in red.

In response to sustained public protests and outbursts of vandalism the site was rechristened Port of Hualien Niaotashih Park (花蓮港鳥踏石公園) in August 2019, with county officials vowing to update the informational plaques on site to reflect a more nuanced reading of Eguchi’s legacy. Instead, it seems as if one plaque was converted into a map of the extended waterfront park, and the other plaque only describes the Ryukyuan fishing village of Niaotashih (鳥踏石) that once occupied this site. The meaning of the torii and stone monument beyond? That’s for visitors to puzzle out on their own.