Feature: Silent monuments embody Taiwan's path to liberation

This photo taken on Oct. 13, 2025 shows a monument set up in memory of fights against Japanese invasion on the Yanliao shore of southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Qi Xianghui)

TAIPEI, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- On a tranquil beach along the northeastern coast of Taiwan stands a weathered stone monument. Its faded inscription still legible: "In memory of fights against Japanese invasion."

In May 1895, this shore, now named Yanliao, was the site where Japanese troops first landed on Taiwan and also where they encountered the first armed resistance, raising the curtain on a half-century struggle for the island's liberation from Japanese colonial rule and restoration to China.

Across the island, from the lush hills of Tainan to the ridges of Changhua and the gorges of Hualien, monuments and memorials stand quietly, not grand in scale, but each carrying the unspoken grief and pride of Taiwan people who refused to bow to foreign rule.

In April 1895, the Qing government, defeated in a war launched by Japan against China, was forced to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan. However, people in Taiwan were determined not to surrender.

Chi Chia-lin, chief of a Taiwan history research association, told Xinhua that nearly 10,000 people in Taiwan sacrificed their lives during the resistance movement in 1895, while on the Japanese side a total of 4,800 Japanese military personnel were killed and about 27,000 injured.

The Japanese encountered the largest scale resistance in the mountainous Changhua County in central Taiwan. In August 1895, thousands of local militia gathered alongside remnants of the Qing army to resist the Japanese on a local hill named Baguashan.

They were outnumbered five to one and poorly armed but fought relentlessly for days, killing over 1,000 Japanese soldiers, including a general, before being overwhelmed. Fewer than 50 survived.

One of the leaders, Xu Xiang, left behind words that still stir the heart: "If this land falls, Taiwan is lost. I will not live to see the motherland again."

Seventy years later, in 1965, local residents discovered 679 skeletons buried on the hillside -- which were identified as the fallen fighters of Baguashan. Today they rest in a memorial park with a monument erected to honor their sacrifice and remind future generations of the spirit that defines the people of Taiwan.

Taiwan's resistance did not end in 1895. It stretched across five decades, through countless acts of defiance against colonial oppression.

In today's Tainan in southern Taiwan, two monuments stand in testimony to one of the most tragic uprisings on the island, the Xilaian Incident of 1915, also known as the Tapani Incident. Led by a man named Yu Qingfang, thousands of local peasants rose up against Japanese rule and their revolt was crushed with brutal efficiency with over 1,000 sentenced to death.

Locals erected a monument on the site of the uprising and another one bearing Yu's name on a hill where a major battle took place.

"Even today, when I come here, I feel a deep sadness," said Lin Shen-jing, a local historian. "The Japanese colonial authorities launched persecutions of village after village in the wake of the uprising. Much more people were killed than recorded in historical archives."

Northward in Hualien along the island's eastern coast, a white modern monument marks the battle of Taroko which took place in 1914. The ethnic minority tribes of Taroko resisted fiercely against the Japanese in defense of their homeland and the price they paid was catastrophic -- with the local clans decimated.

Designed by a local artist, the monument in Hualien features 22 stone spheres symbolizing the tribes that fought together, with one central orb representing the observing spirit of their ancestors.

In the misty mountains of Nantou, another chapter of resistance by ethnic minorities on the island unfolded in 1930. The local tribes there, led by their chief Mona Rudo, attacked Japanese police stations and killed hundreds. Japan's response was swift and merciless -- bombings, poison gas and mass executions left more than 900 people dead.

Locals have erected a statue of Mona Rudo and monuments for those fallen in the battle -- bearing inscriptions such as "heroes against Japanese invasion" and "crimson blood, undying spirit."

All these brave but tragic resistance efforts paved the way to a red stone monument standing high in the square in front of the Taipei Zhongshan Hall, where on Oct. 25, 1945, the ceremony to accept Japan's surrender in Taiwan Province of the China war theater of the Allied powers was held. From that point on, China recovered Taiwan de jure and de facto.

On the surface of the monument stones, there are vertical cuts, each standing for a year since 1895 -- and three outstanding marks showing the significant years of 1895, 1937 and 1945.

At the base of the monument sits a stone scroll. Among the sentences carved into it, one reads: "The war of resistance against Japanese aggression revealed the indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation in defending its homeland. This monument is dedicated to all compatriots who gave their lives in the struggle. May they be remembered forever." ■

This photo taken on Sept. 25, 2025 shows a monument marking the Xilaian Incident of 1915, also known as the Tapani Incident, in Tainan, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Qi Xianghui)

This photo taken on Sept. 11, 2025 shows a monument marking the battle of Taroko, which took place in 1914, in Hualien, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Qi Xianghui)

This photo taken on Oct. 5, 2025 shows a monument marking the victory against Japanese aggression and Taiwan's recovery from Japanese occupation, in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Qi Xianghui)