Formosan, Hoan, Ban, Takasago-zoku...
Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan" indicates the Austronesian peoples living on the island of Formosa. They are not of one single ethnic group. Although the Indigenous communities and groups named themselves respectively, they had been successively given different names by foreign regimes on the island. had once been called "Hoan" (meaning "savages") by Han Chinese, "Formosan" by Dutch, and "Ban" (also meaning "savages") by Japanese. Since neither the Crown Prince Hirohito (later the Emperor Shōwa) nor the Indigenous Peoples themselves considered the word "Ban" appropriate, the latter was renamed as "Takasago" meaning "Taiwanese aboriginals living in mountain areas.
Kudamatsu Senjirō was a Japanese policeman working at Mba'ala in Taichū Prefecture (today's Ren-ai Township in Nantou County). He married Litok Nomin (Kudamatsu Ritsuko), daughter of the Chief of Sekauyau, a Tayal community (today's Slamaw Community in Taichung City). In a letter to the editor, Kudamatsu Senjirō expressed his sincere wish to stop using terms such as "Banjin" (savages) or "Bansha" (savages' villages), since it was most unbearable for the Indigenous people when they were called "Banjin" during their trips in lowland areas.
![slide-a.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6ea50f_7d522abba1c4495aa34f790cfe92376e~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_811,h_740,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/slide-a.jpg)
Formosan, Hoan, Ban, Takasago-zoku...
Kudamatsu Senjirō was a Japanese policeman working at Mba'ala in Taichū Prefecture (today's Ren-ai Township in Nantou County).