Takagi Tomoe: The Japanese Doctor Who Devoted Himself to Taiwan – S5-E14

THE TAIWAN HISTORY PODCAST – FORMOSA FILES

TRANSCRIPT

Takagi Tomoe: The Japanese Doctor Who Devoted Himself to Taiwan – S5-E14

Release Date: May 21^st, 2025

Time: 21:01

PLEASE NOTE: This transcript was created by AI; it may not be entirely accurate. Any errors are the result of the AI transcription, and Formosa Files is not liable for the content in this transcript. Thank you, and use AI responsibly 😊

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Welcome to a special episode of Formosa Files, I'm Eryk Michael Smith. In this short, but I think fascinating episode, my co-host John Ross will talk with Taipei-based physician and history buff Dr. Jimmy Lee about an important figure in the early decades of Japanese rule, Dr. Takagi Tomoe. Some of you may recall that in April of 2024, we did an episode on the devastating 1906 Meishan Earthquake, Meishan Di Zhen.

Meishan is located near the city of Chiayi, and this 1906 quake was a big one. In that earthquake episode, which drew on sources never before told in English, we mentioned that a certain Dr. Takagi Tomoe was one of those who went down to the Chiayi epicenter to help out, and that he left some comments on what he saw. So following the release of the Meishan Earthquake episode, a listener got in touch with us to say he had more information about Dr. Takagi, and he was being modest.

He knows basically everything there is to know about the Japanese doctor. And yeah, this listener, slash Dr. Takagi expert, was none other than the aforementioned Dr. Jimmy Lee. Okay, so let me just set the stage a little.

It's worth considering just how bad the health situation was in Taiwan at that time. So we're talking the late 1890s and the early 1900s. Thousands of people died of plague every year. In fact, for centuries, Taiwan had been a place of fearsome reputation, an island of terrible fevers, especially malaria. It's interesting to consider that tropical diseases might have been the biggest reason Taiwan stayed free from foreign conquest for as long as it did. Anyway, our Japanese doctor came to Taiwan in 1902, just about seven years after the growing Japanese Empire swallowed up Formosa.

Most will recall that the Qing Dynasty was forced to give up Taiwan and Penghu forever in a peace deal known as the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Qing Dynasty China had lost, and lost badly, the first Sino-Japanese War, and Taiwan was handed over to Japan in 1895. Taiwan would remain a Japanese colony until after World War II in 1945, so 50 years.

Okay, back to Dr. Takagi. He was in his early 40s when he came here, but already had an impressive resume. He'd overcome poor beginnings to study modern medicine at Tokyo Imperial University. After holding high posts at regional hospitals, Takagi joined the cutting-edge Kitasato Institute of Infectious Diseases, learning about vaccines and infectious disease control. He helped produce a cholera vaccine, had great success battling a plague outbreak, and he also ran large-scale quarantine programs. This notable individual also studied modern bacteriology in Germany in the late 1890s, where he met his future wife.

Because of his impressive public health work, he was invited by Taiwan's colonial government to come and help make the newly Japanese Formosa a safe place to live. And as you'll hear, he did a pretty amazing job.

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The Taiwan History Podcast, Formosa Files, is made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Frank C. Chen Foundation.

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Welcome to Formosa Files. I'm John Ross, and today I'm speaking with a doctor.

Now this is not an academic doctor, it's a real one, somebody who can treat you. Jimmy Lee, a doctor up in a prestigious hospital in Taipei. Welcome to Formosa Files.

Hello everybody. Today we're talking about one of the giants of early Taiwan modern medicine, a Japanese man called Takagi. What was his full name? Takagi Tomoe.

Takagi Tomoe. Yes. So for the Taiwanese listeners, they may better know him as Kaomuyo-tsu, which is the kanji characters pronounced in Mandarin.

So in Chinese characters, that's high and wood. Yes. So Takagi was born in Japan in 1858.

Yes, 58 in present-day Fukushima. So that period in Japan, that is a time when the feudal Takugawa shogunate was transitioning to the modernizing Meiji government. And this caused a civil war called the Boshun War in 1868 when Takagi was seven years old.

So his clan resisted the modernizing Meiji. So he's on the losing side in this struggle. I feel that in some way he was being on this losing side of a major historical event.

And I feel that this probably influenced his character that later on he came to Taiwan. And I think in some ways he was very different from the other Japanese officials where he really appreciated Taiwan. He could look into the Taiwan culture and sometimes understand the people who were being the losers or the colonized people.

Japan had secured Taiwan as part of the treaty ending the Sino-Japanese War. They'd come here in 1895 to claim their prize. It would take a lot of fighting before they actually had control of most of the island.

They experienced a lot of problems with disease in the early years. And part of that was plague, bubonic plague. Takagi was sent here to help deal with that.

Is that right? Yes, exactly. So the plague outbreak occurred about five years earlier and it never really stopped and was really spreading throughout Taiwan. The government was having a hard time trying to control the plague.

And they finally decided that they needed someone who was competent. So the plague was spreading in Taiwan. It was becoming out of control in 1901.

So at this time, Kodama was the government general and Goto was the head of civilian affairs. And they remember that they had previous working experience with Takagi at the Ninoshima quarantine facility. And they also heard about Takagi's very successful career at ending the Osaka plague in 1901.

So they immediately thought of having Takagi come to Taiwan. Okay. And part of their invitation and Takagi taking up the offer wasn't just the advancement of medicine or personal ambitions.

It was about a rivalry. It's a rivalry between this private Kitasato Infectious Disease Institute and the medical department at Tokyo University. It was a dispute between two men, but it also became a dispute between two institutions and the students and friends of these men.

The institute was finally absorbed into Tokyo University. And in protest, many of the brightest and the best decided to go overseas. Yes, indeed.

And Takagi as one of the very first members of the Kitasato Institute, this also pushed his decision to come to Taiwan and subsequently also gathered the previous faculties of the institute to help serve in Taiwan, which in the end really benefited Taiwan. Yes. And there were other people too.

So these doctors coming here, it's not a case of Taiwan being such an attractive destination. Far from it. It's quite an unhealthy, difficult place.

And it's not like there's a surplus of modern doctors in Japan at the time either. They could have stayed there and worked in Japan. So yes, it's these personal squabbles.

We won't get into what they were fighting over, but it's quite interesting, isn't it? Sort of history turns on personalities of personal disputes. Yes. And actually, I will add a third reason that pushed Takagi to come to Taiwan.

In his letters to his later wife, Mina, he actually mentioned that since they were getting married, they needed to have better pay to support Mina. Mina was living a good life in Germany, so he needed to purchase a big house and things. So going to Taiwan actually offered a better pay compared to his current position.

So this also added in. Yes. Well, his position was a promotion, yes.

So his position was to head the medical services here, going to be in charge of a new medical school and also basically the health department. Yes. And he would succeed very well in both of these positions.

So as a health department, he quickly used his knowledge to control the plague in Taiwan and the plague gradually disappeared over time. However, when he was first there, it was not the case. There was a lot of outbreaks still around.

Even though he's very much focused on laboratory work, modern medicine, much of his approach is public health, sanitation, hygiene, killing rats. Yeah, killing rats was a very important part at that time because many people don't know that rats were connected to the plague. So they asked the police to go into the countryside and tell people to collect rats. So for each rat, they will give them some payment. And that's how they really started to control the rodents and subsequently the plague. So he tackled the plague, cholera, other diseases.

Yeah, the anti-malaria was also important. He also tried to control the dengue epidemic and also typhoid and paratyphoid. So he really contributed a lot to the early hygiene. So with malaria, again, it's quite low tech in a way. It's not developing any medicines. It's mostly getting rid of problem mosquitoes, stagnant water and isolating people with malaria.

So you don't have that chain, you want to break the chain of mosquitoes, biting infected people and carrying it to others. Part of this public hygiene involves government control of the population, doesn't it? Yes. They send in hygiene police.

So as mentioned previously, for the rat control, these police, really they were just there for like what we would see today as a public health specialist where they just come in and teach people about the important hygiene knowledge. So these police or these hygiene police were sent around the countryside and they taught the residents about the importance of infectious control and really give them the idea that these pests, that they're not only pests, but they were hosts of infectious agents. And once people learn about this, they could really deal with it efficiently by controlling the pests.

Okay, so Jimmy, our man Takagi has a new job in Taiwan. It comes with a good salary, so he can bring his wife out. And is he married at this stage? We're calling him.

He was not married yet. So as we mentioned briefly, he sent his letters to Mina in Germany. Mina was still in Germany at that time.

So we have this collection of letters and he mentioned that, oh, I'm going to Taiwan and I'll pick you up when I have a mansion ready for you. And that is exactly what he did. In 1902, he sent this letter and asked Mina to come.

He said, oh, I'm ready. You can come in. And Mina came through Hong Kong and landed in Danshui where they met and subsequently got married in a local church.

That's amazing. German woman coming to Taiwan and marrying a Japanese man. I've not heard of a case like that before.

Yes, indeed. I think it's a very, very special relation. As well as all the public health work he's doing around the country, preventing and putting down outbreaks of disease, he's also running a school.

Yes. So there was this medical school created by a doctor called Yamaguchi prior to Takagi. And Yamaguchi created a school in 1896 because at that time he thought that he needed to train local doctors.

As we mentioned early on, the doctors from Japan, they did not want to come to Taiwan. So he thought that he needed to train locals. The problem was that many locals also did not want to become doctors.

Not like today where everyone wants to compete to become a doctor. So at that time, Yamaguchi actually had a hard time recruiting students and he had to go door to door begging students to come, even offering them stipend. Amazing.

Yeah. It's very hard to imagine today, especially considering this medical school that Yamaguchi established would later become what we know today. National Taiwan University NTU.

Tai-Da. Okay. Yes.

So yeah, this would be hard to imagine today considering this very small hospital that had trouble recruiting students later become the National Taiwan University College of Medicine. Anyway, Yamaguchi created this hospital and he started to have a little bit of students, but it was just not very successful. And also he was a little bit of an arrogant person and he didn't go well with his superiors.

So he was sacked in 1902. And that was when Takagi came in and took his place. And Takagi continued the practice of going around and asking students to come.

But at this time, because of some very early successful students, the medical school was gaining prestige and more and more students start to join the medical college or the medical school. And later on, Takagi would have taught many famous students that we know today, such as Dr. Du Congming or Zhang Weisui or Lai He. That's excellent.

I mean, it's actually unusual for the Japanese to be teaching the Taiwanese. Takagi was very special, as we mentioned very early on, that I think he really sought along the Taiwanese people. He recognized the talent of the Taiwanese, unlike many Japanese officials at the time who thought Japanese were superior.

They still have this like racial idea, thinking that Taiwanese were like inferior person. Takagi did not think like that. He really recognized the Taiwanese talent and he treated his students very well.

For example, many Japanese schools, they did not allow Taiwanese students to speak in their local Taiwanese language. Takagi was different. He let his students speak Taiwanese in the school and this offended some of his superiors.

And when his superiors challenged him, he just told them that my students speak better Japanese than any of the other students. And then that was that. What is the phrase he often told his students? He did not teach classes in medical knowledge.

Instead, he taught a class about building character. Takagi emphasized that it is not the medical skill and techniques that makes someone a good doctor. Instead, it is personal integrity.

So during every year in the graduation ceremony, he would teach his students the very famous quote that we still constantly know in the National Taiwan University College of Medicine today. He would say that before becoming a doctor, become a person. Before becoming a doctor, become a person.

That's lovely. That's very nice. And he must have been much loved by his students.

Yes. I think this is also very different from other Japanese officials, just because he treated Taiwanese like people. So he was really well respected by his students.

And many students wrote later in their memoirs talking about this experience, which they find very precious to them, including Dr. Du Cong Ming. Yes, it's interesting. A lot of these early Taiwanese doctors, these educated elite, they have conflicted feelings.

They dislike the arrogant, heavy-handed colonial Japanese rule, but they also have enormous personal respect for many of their, or some of their teachers. And Takagi was one of such respected Japanese in Taiwan. In fact, Takagi was also indirectly involved in the Luo Fuxing rebellion that you covered in your Taiwan in the Teens episode previously.

Okay. So rebellion that didn't really kick off, stopped in the early stages. So this is 1913.

Yeah, it was a failed attempt. And in fact, one of the rebels that joined Luo Fuxing was a former student from the medical college Takagi was headed. And Takagi's colleagues made fun of him.

They said that, oh, such a great educator, but you still have a student joining the rebel movement. Yeah. So to this, Takagi actually responded with a very cryptic comment.

He said that, oh, this is because the student, he didn't graduate, he didn't receive my full education. Okay. Yeah.

So it is interesting because he never said that what would happen if the student become fully educated. Does that mean that a student will not join the rebel and become very loyal to Japan? Or maybe that he would be very good and succeed and actually not get caught. We might be able to guess the answer from the following incident.

So later on, because of the nationalist sentiment inside the medical college, Japanese police tried to enter the campus and wanted to arrest the students associated with anti-Japanese thoughts or movements. To this, Takagi firmly rejected the police. He did not let them enter.

And he told them the campus belongs to a place of liberal thinking and it's no place for military or police. And later on, he gathered a student and gave them a small talk. Interestingly, he didn't tell the students to stop their anti-government behavior.

Instead, he just said that, oh, you are very young and sometimes you may become emotional. You may think that joining a rebellion is like just picking sides in a sumo match. However, this is a very serious matter and you should think very carefully what you really want.

If you reach the conclusion that this is really the path you want to take, then walk this path with perseverance and be proud. In fact, just as Luo Fuxing did even to his death. Excellent.

But I'm not sure his superiors would have been entirely happy with his liberal views. Yes. So in some way, he was a very prestigious person in Japan and in the Taiwanese government at that time.

So I think for some way he was probably okay. But in some other, I think this also affected his later retirement in 1915. I think in some way probably hurt his standing in the Japanese government.

This is a strange end part to Takagi's time in Taiwan. He's involved with the electric company. Yes.

So in the final 10 years in Taiwan, Takagi was the head of the Thai Power Company, or what is today known as the Thai Power Company. So again, in your previous Taiwan in the Teens episode, you mentioned that the government general Akashi Motojiro, the one who was buried in Taiwan, he wanted to create a Thai Power Company to provide enough power to the entire island. Governor General Akashi Motojiro, yes, he wanted to develop electric power, but why choose Dr. Takagi? Yeah, exactly.

That was a very good question. And in fact, it also surprised Takagi when the government general Akashi asked him to become the head of the Thai Power Company. So Akashi said that he recognized that during that time, there was a lot of corruption growing.

Taiwan was quick to become a prosperous place, but at the same time, corruption was building up in the government, and he thought that he needed someone who was well-known for personal integrity. And he asked around, and everyone told him, go find Takagi. Excellent.

So I'm going to paraphrase here. So before you become the head of the electric power company, become a person of integrity. Yes, exactly.

I think that was what Akashi had in mind, and that is why he asked Takagi to head the company. So he told Takagi this thought, and at first, Takagi thought it was strange, and he refused. But Akashi was a very sincere person, and Takagi was finally convinced.

So Akashi, government general, just told Takagi that, oh, it's okay. You can leave all the technical aspects, the engineering part, just leave it to the other people. So you just be the head, and let people see what a person should be like, and they will learn from you.

So the hydroelectric power plant at Sun Moon Lake would be built. It was a success in the end, but it took a long time. Takagi did not stay here to see it open.

He was back in Japan by this stage. Yes. I think one of the major issues is that the 1923 Kantō earthquake, so originally there were a lot of funding that wanted to go into the power plant, got back into rebuilding the Tokyo area.

And at that time, without funding, Takagi was having a hard time doing much. But Takagi actually still tried a lot and go around the government and try to ask for funding and try to secure more funding for the government. And he still had a relatively fine career in improving the Thai power output during this period.

So he was still successful, but indeed, he never saw the completion of the Sun Moon Lake. So it's kind of sad. He passed away in 1943 during World War II.

Yeah. So he left Taiwan in 1929 and returned to Japan. And he later stayed in a small house in the suburbs of Tokyo with his wife.

And yes, the war broke out and he finally passed away in 1943 due to pneumonia. During this time, he actually still constantly had visitors from Taiwan, his former students. Again, he was really well-loved and many students still visited him in Japan.

And during this time, he often expressed his sadness that the war was coming on and he could not see the end of the war. Thank you very much for sharing your deep knowledge of this remarkable figure. Thanks for having me.

Thank you.