Do you know who is Hatta Yoichi (八田與一 はった よいち ) ?

Do you know who Hatta Yoichi (八田與一 はった よいち ) is? You may know who is Hatta Yoichi; but I did not know before until recently I read a small article in the Church Weekly. I believe many Taiwanese who have grown up in the era of White Terror of the Chinese colonial government (led by Kuo-Ming-Tang) will be as ignorant as I am about this Japanese civil engineer. You and I may know pretty well about Chinese Great Wall; but we are all ignorant about the great project of water reservoir and a network of water tunnels that direct the water from the reservoir to various places in the Jia-Lan Great Plain.

Through out Taiwanese history, there are several non-Taiwanese-natives who have made significant contributions to Taiwan. On February of 2009, I had introduced to you with a story of the Canadian Presbyterian minister, Dr. MacKay 馬偕医師,. Today, I am going to introduce to you a Japanese civil engineer, Mr. Hatta Yoichi 八田與一 はった よいち (1886-1942). He built the Wu-San-Tou Water Reservoir 烏山頭水庫 and Jia-Nan-water-plantation-water-tunnels 嘉南大圳to supply water needed for growing rice fields in the Jia-Nan plain of Taiwan. The project was the first-in-the kind in Asia, and third-in-the kind in the world great engineering marvels of the time.

The plain of Yun-Lin, Jia-Yi, and Tai-nan counties on the sea-shore used to be desert-like; not much different from the desert lands of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. Nothing could grow on this soil. There was too much salt in the soil. Fresh water sources either from the rain or from the stream was either too little or too much. This situation changed after the water reservoir at Wu-San-Tou 烏山頭 was built in 1930. Today, the Jia-Nan Plain is not only the so-called Rice-Warehouse of Taiwan but one of the Rice-Warehouse of the Asia. Water plantation acreage has increased from 7,000 hectare (1 hectare=10,000 square meters)to 15,000 hectors. With the reservoir, farmers are able to plant rice on the Jia-Nan plain twice a year. Rice productivity increased 6.5-fold while the sugar cane productivity increased approximately 3 times. This engineering project required building water tunnels through the Wu-San-Mountain 烏山 with total tunnel length of 16,000 km which is 9,000 km longer than that of the Great-Wall in China (Total length of Great Wall is 6400 km.) Imagine that engineers and workers had to dig 16,000 km-long water tunnels to direct the water to the rice field. The quality of the project was first in the kind at the time.

This engineering project was led by a Japanese civil engineer, Mr. Hatta Yoichi 八田與一 はった よいち (1886-1942). The engineering team included both Japanese and Taiwanese engineers and workers. The total cost of the project was 5.414 x 10^(8) Japanese Yen日圓 (The budget of the project was second next to the Japanese war budget in which the Japanese used in preparation to fight a war against the world.); the Japanese government paid half of the total cost, the rest of the cost was shared by Taiwanese farmers. During the project, he working area at Wu-San Mountain was infested with malaria and other tropical diseases. Yet the team overcame all difficulties and finished the project in 1930. During this 10 year-long project, Taiwanese and Japanese engineers and workers worked side-by-side to finish a project they were proud to show-off to the world. The project has benefited many Taiwanese generations many years after 1930.

In 1942, while Mr. Hatta Yoichi was boarding a merchant ship on the way to Philippine, the merchant ship was torpedoed by an American submarine. Mr. Hatta Yoichi died in that attack; his remains were buried near the Wu-San-Tou 烏山頭 water reservoir. In 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies, all Japanese nationals needed to be sent back to Japan. Hatta Yoichi's wife unwilling to leave Taiwan, she committed suicide by drowning herself in the water reservoir. Taiwanese buried the couple together near the Wu-San-Tou water reservoir.

Taiwanese initially built a statue for Hatta Yoichi but hid the statue for the concern that the Chinese colonial government (led by the Chinese Nationalist) which had a very strong anti-Japanese attitude might destroy the statue. The statue was finally allowed to be displayed and Mr. Hatta Yoichi's story finnaly allowed to be commemorated during the Lee Tung-Huei era. We finally know about this Japanese engineer and Taiwanese friend who had devoted more than 10 years of his life to finish a project in Taiwan that benefited many Taiwanese generations years after.

Thank you, Mr. Hatta Yoichi 八田與一.