Takasago Volunteers (高砂義勇隊, Takasago Giyuutai^?) were volunteer soldiers in the Imperial Japanese Army, recruited from the Taiwanese aboriginal tribes during World War II.

[edit] Background and history

After the occupation and annexation of Taiwan after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1898, the Japanese government pursued a policy of cultural assimilation, directed especially towards the various groups of Taiwanese aborigines.

The Imperial Japanese Army had interest in the use of Taiwanese aborigines in special forces operations, as they were viewed more physically capable to operate in the tropical and sub-tropical regions in Southeast Asia than ethnic Japanese, and, coming from a hunter-gatherer culture, would be able to operate with minimal logistics support. The Japanese military recruited many young men from friendly tribes into service shortly before the start of World War II. The total number was secret and estimates on the numbers recruited range from 1800-5000 men. Training was under the direction of officers from the Nakano School, who specialized in insurgency and guerilla warfare. Initially assigned to transport and supply units, as the war condition progressively deteriorated for Imperial Japanese forces, the Takasago Volunteers were sent into front line combat as riflemen. Units comprised entirely of “Takasago Volunteers” served with distinction in the Philippines, Netherlands East Indies, Solomon Islands and New Guinea, where they fought in combat against Americans and Australians forces even before Taiwanese ethnic Han volunteers were recruited into service.

Towards the end of the war, 15 officers and 45 enlisted members of the Takasago Volunteers were organized into the Kaoru Special Attack Corps for a suicide mission similar to that of the Giretsu Kuteitai, and attacked a USAAF landing strip on Leyte.

The Takasago Volunteers were well known for their jungle survival ability. The most notable example is Attun Palalin, a Japanese holdouts discovered in Indonesia in 1975. He lived in solitude in the jungle for almost 20 years after leaving other holdouts in 1956.

[edit] References

• Befu, Harumi.Eds. (2002). Globalizing Japan. Routledge-Curzon. ISBN 0415285666. 
• Ching, Leo T.S. (2001). Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22553-8. 
• Trefalt, Beatric (2003). Japanese Army Stragglers and Memories of the War in Japan, 1950-75. Routledge-Curzon. ISBN 0415312183.