Watershed Protection as Dispossession in Taiwan under Japanese Rule

 

Sponsored by the History of Science and Medicine Program

 

Description: In physical terms, a watershed is a straightforward description of the drainage of water across land. Offering a characterization of both sweeping connection and hard boundaries, this seemingly simple concept has proven useful for diverse actors ranging from ecologists to political theorists. Environmentalists have long seen in the watershed the promise of an ethic of stewardship predicated on the recognition that no action affecting a waterway can be free from upstream influences and downstream impacts.

 

This talk explores a context in which thinking in terms of watersheds acquired new scientific and political prominence: Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945). In the wake of destructive lowland floods, Japanese foresters blamed highland Indigenous peoples and their practices of shifting cultivation. This accusation reflected not just colonial condescension but also Japanese assumptions about watershed hydrology. Although contested within the colonial state, watershed protection became a common justification for violent dispossessions of Atayal and Bunun communities. Large dam construction later intensified these dynamics by replacing river watersheds with sensitive reservoir watersheds, creating tensions that rack Taiwan to this day. Interrogating the watershed reveals its political plasticity and shows the interplay between discourses of ecological interconnectedness and culpability.