Based on Kazuhiko Inoue’s Sankei Shimbun essay, this article examines why Taiwan responded swiftly and effectively to the coronavirus outbreak. It discusses Taiwan’s painful SARS experience, its independent measures without relying on the WHO, and the lasting public-health and medical-administration legacy of Goto Shinpei, known as the father of Taiwan’s modernization.

April 6, 2020
Goto Shinpei — this great man spoken of by the internist at the beginning — is respected by the Taiwanese as “the father of Taiwan’s modernization,” and his achievements continue to be handed down to this day.
The following is from an essay by Kazuhiko Inoue, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “Taiwan’s Coronavirus Measures and Goto’s Last Teachings.”
“Well, what on earth has happened to Japan? What immediately came to my mind was Goto Shinpei.”
The person who said this, tilting his head over Japan’s measures against the spread of infection, was an internist I know from Taiwan.
When the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, began to show signs of spreading globally, Taiwan quickly took effective measures and worked to prevent its spread.
In January, Taiwan banned group travel to and from Wuhan, and on February 6, it banned visits from all of China.
Although no optimism is permitted, attention is being focused on Taiwan’s skillful control of the infection.
The spread of the concept of public health
Behind this was the bitter experience of 2003, when severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, originating in China, spread in Taiwan.
At that time, the person who dealt with SARS was the current vice president, Chen Chien-jen, who was then the head of the Department of Health under the Executive Yuan.
In an interview with this newspaper, Vice President Chen said that when Taiwan reported cases to the WHO, the World Health Organization, at the time, there was no response, and that if specimens had been obtained from the WHO, the unfortunate hospital-acquired infections would not have occurred.
For that reason, Taiwan had no choice but to fight an unknown infectious disease on its own.
Since Chen Chien-jen, who stood at the front line of that battle against SARS, is the vice president assisting President Tsai Ing-wen, it is understandable that Taiwan’s response to the current novel coronavirus crisis was swift and accurate.
Chen’s presence is truly reminiscent of Goto Shinpei, the civil administrator who assisted Kodama Gentaro, the fourth Governor-General of Taiwan.
Goto Shinpei — this great man spoken of by the internist at the beginning — is respected by the Taiwanese as “the father of Taiwan’s modernization,” and his achievements continue to be handed down to this day.
At the time Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Sino-Japanese War in 1895, it was still a pestilential land where various epidemics such as malaria, typhus, and cholera were rampant.
Driving out these epidemics was one of the most important tasks in the governance of Taiwan.
Goto Shinpei, who went to Taiwan as Governor-General Kodama’s right-hand man, carried out a large-scale land survey, developed infrastructure, and at the same time devoted himself to improving the medical environment.
Goto, who was also a physician, established hospitals and preventive-disinfection organizations, created a public-doctor system, placed clinics in various regions, and improved the sanitary environment by developing water supply and sewerage systems.
In particular, the spread of public-health concepts such as encouraging handwashing and gargling, and drying and beating futons, was effective.
In this way, epidemics were driven out one after another, and the foundation for modernization was laid.
When I telephoned a young Bunun man who is currently back home in Taitung and asked about the influence of the novel coronavirus, the conversation turned to Goto Shinpei.
He told me that in Taiwan’s mountain regions, many medical terms are still used in Japanese even now.
This is evidence that the medical administration of that time had reached all parts of Taiwan, and is it not precisely Goto Shinpei’s “legacy”?
The great achievement of a “life that leaves people behind”
At that moment, what came to my mind was Goto Shinpei’s last teaching:
“A life that leaves money behind is low.
A life that leaves enterprise behind is middle.
A life that leaves people behind is high.”
On May 22, 1999, in Tainan City in southern Taiwan, an international symposium was held to honor the achievements of Goto Shinpei and Nitobe Inazo, and I also took part in it.
I remember that at the symposium, voices praising the great achievements of the two men, who devoted themselves to Taiwan’s modernization, followed one after another, and my heart trembled with emotion.
At that time, Hsu Wen-lung, who served as a national policy adviser to President Lee Teng-hui, appealed to the Taiwanese people in the venue, saying that they must not forget that present-day Taiwan exists thanks to the achievements of the Japanese people.
In the booklet Taiwan’s History, which organizes part of the content of lectures he gave for employee education, Hsu states as follows:
“The foundations of Taiwan were almost entirely built during the period of Japanese rule, and it may be said that we have merely built further on top of them. We should be grateful to the Japanese people of that time and recognize them fairly.”
In fact, many Taiwanese people unanimously praise the education, medical care, and infrastructure development of the Japanese colonial period.
President Tsai Ing-wen, who won reelection in the presidential election this January and is entering her second term, will be supported as vice president, replacing Chen Chien-jen, by Lai Ching-te, who also holds the title of physician.
President Tsai has once again selected a “Goto Shinpei” as her right-hand man.
Japan should learn from Taiwan’s experience
As the novel coronavirus spreads to countries around the world, Taiwan has achieved a certain degree of success in controlling infection.
To me, it seems that Goto Shinpei’s “teachings” are somehow protecting Taiwan.
That is because Taiwan’s current medical care was built on the foundation of the medical infrastructure of the Japanese period.
A Taiwanese friend who teaches at Kainan University says:
“Because Taiwan cannot rely on the WHO, it had to think up its own measures to prevent the spread of infection.”
As a result, it may have been better not to rely on the WHO, whose stance has also been pointed out as one that could be taken as consideration toward China.
Political consideration for one country must not be brought into the world’s epidemic-prevention issues.
That is because epidemic prevention is a matter concerning public health and human life throughout the entire world.
The WHO should immediately admit Taiwan, which has achieved results in suppressing the spread of the novel coronavirus, and learn from Taiwan’s experience.