일본의 대만 식민지 지배와 헌병대 ―'대만헌병대'의 특징과 역할을 중심으로 ―

Abstract

When the Japanese military police was first dispatched to Taiwan in June, 1895, the dispatched military police had unique characteristics different from those of the military police in Japan since Taiwan was in wartime and regarded as an ‘occupied territory.’ Particularly, the wide range of authority of the military police was outstanding. The Japanese military police had the authority both as military police according to the ordinance and common police in charge of administration and judicature, although the tasks as common police were limited. In the early period of possession, the expansion of civil police officers was delayed while ‘maintenance of public peace’ of the ‘occupied territory’ which continued to expand was considered as urgent. Therefore, it was not an option to admit and take advantage of the authority of the military police over the common police office in order to secure more police force in whatever formation it would be. Further, the tasks of the military police included military police duties such as supervision over military discipline of the expeditionary force, handling of the Chinese remnants of a defeated army, monitoring of secret agents, protection of lines of communications as well as a lot of general works of common police. In response to the changing circumstance, continuous increase of the staff from the military police in Japan was planned, but the training and dispatch of the necessary military force were not enough to meet the demand for the military police drastically increasing right after the Sino-Japanese War. As the anti-Japanese struggle among Taiwanese proceeded aggressively, the Japanese Government General conducted military administration in Aug 1895, and the importance of the military police was more emphasized accordingly. As a result, the ‘Temporary Taiwan Military Police’ was founded, and large scale increase of the military police staff was implemented. In the mean time, the military police continued to implement tasks both as military police and common police. In April 1896, as the Japanese Government General returned from military administration to civil government, the military police was reorganized as a permanent agency in May and renamed to ‘Taiwan Military Police’ with the headquarters established. Accordingly, ‘Taiwan military police ordinance’ was announced as Royal decree, and it was specified that the military police were in charge of both military police and common police. Thereafter, ‘Taiwan Military Police’ started to play the role as a ‘liquidating’ agency focusing on “search and arrest of rebellious natives” for the sake of ‘maintenance of public peace’ by means of ‘three-stage defense’ conducted by Maresuke Nogi. However, the wide range of authority of ‘Taiwan Military Police’ did not last long. The amendment of the military police ordinance in Sep 1897 abolished ‘Taiwan military police ordinance’ and disorganized the headquarters. Besides, ‘Taiwan Military Police’ was incorporated to the military police in Japan. As the organization was reduced, the authority of the military police over common police office also was limited. As a result, the military police, which was the leading force of armed suppression was drastically reduced, and finally as the exemption clause of the military police dispatched to Taiwan was deleted when the military police ordinance was amended in Aril 1901, the military police dispatched to Taiwan came to commit itself to its own duty as military police.