In the Japanese ruling period (1895-1945),
the Ministry Hospital was built as the landmark for Japanese government
to extend their medical system in Taiwan. The purpose of its existence
had a great connection with Taiwanese natural environment. Being a
subtropical island, Taiwan was notorious for its environmental threats
toward human health; numerous data showed that Taiwan was plagued by
epidemics. The number of fatalities of the military staff at that time
stated that such epidemics even served as a weapon to guard Taiwan from
invasions.
Japan suffered from local epidemics when it
first landed at Taiwan in 1874. 1895, during the Japanese occupation on
Taiwan, these colonizers lost more members due to the local diseases.
The lesson that Japanese learned urged them to pay attention to the
public hygiene. We can also say that one of the troubles the Japanese
faced when ruling Taiwan was the local epidemics. According to Japanese
official survey, in April 1896, more than five Japanese executives died
monthly, and up to two-thirds of government officials were infected. The
colonization was completely blocked.
The Japanese scholars, then, pointed out,
“Colonization of tropical lands is based on hygienic condition, for the
nature is the biggest threat. Taiwan must therefore care about the
hygiene problem.” “Colonies keep their economy values only when the
public hygiene is secured.” We can understand that Japanese relied on
high-quality public hygiene to accomplish its colonization; the
improvement of public hygiene could also stabilize the government
authorities and raise the economy level of the colony. Another reason
for the Japanese to set up medical system was that before the Japanese
governing, Taiwan itself had scarce any medical resources. Public
hospitals were the first medical institute to satisfy this need. The
pioneer of the project was the Taiwan Hospital (Taipei Hospital),
founded in June, 1895. In May, 1896, Taichung and Tainan Hospitals
appeared. The same year, in June, more hospitals were established
answering to the local government applications: the government built up
hospitals in Tam-shui, Keelong, Shin-Chu in then Taipei county; Lu-kang,
Miaolee, Yuun-lin, Pu-lee, in Taichung county. Chia-I, Fong-Shun and the
Penhu of Tainan county also owned their first Japanese hospital. At Hun-chun
and Tai-tong, the government set clinics. This is the origin of I-lan
Hospital. |
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