This essay examines Goto Shinpei’s philosophy that “he who leaves behind people is the greatest,” as demonstrated through Taiwan’s major development projects: the construction of the port of Keelung, the north–south railway, and the island-wide land survey.
Through bold talent selection—such as Nagao Hampei and Nakamura Zeikō—and unwavering trust in their abilities, Goto laid the human foundations for Taiwan’s modernization.
These projects not only transformed Taiwan into a self-sustaining economy but also produced leaders who later shaped institutions such as the South Manchuria Railway and the rebuilding of Tokyo.
The essay is a powerful study of how nation-building depends not on money or policy alone, but on cultivating and empowering exceptional people.

The following is from Professor Toshio Watanabe’s serialized column that opens the latest issue of the monthly magazine Hanada.
This essay is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for readers around the world.

Chapter 26: “He Who Leaves Behind People Is the Greatest”

“Listen carefully.
The one who dies leaving behind money is low.
The one who dies leaving behind work is middle-class.
The one who dies leaving behind people is great.
Engrave this in your memory.”

The source of this saying is unclear.
It may well have been coined by someone else, but it has long been attributed to Goto Shinpei.
Indeed, Goto was a man who lived exactly in this manner.
In particular, Goto left remarkable achievements in the domain of “leaving behind people.”
The selection of personnel necessary to accomplish major undertakings, his unwavering trust in the individuals he selected, and the devotion of the engineers and officials who responded to that trust—these were central to the success of Goto’s enterprises.

Let me speak of two examples from Taiwan’s development.
One is the land survey project.
The other is the construction of the port of Keelung, the starting point of the north–south trunk railway.

I will begin with the latter.
Along the western coast of Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait, there is no depth suitable for a good harbor.
The eastern coast consists mostly of deep trenches formed by sheer mountains of the Central Mountain Range plunging directly into the sea.
Both coasts have little indentation and building a harbor is not easy.
Only Keelung and Kaohsiung offer viable sites.
Keelung had a port opened during the Qing dynasty.
However, it was inadequate and unable to handle the loading and unloading of the large quantities of materials needed for the railway.

The port engineer Goto selected for the harbor construction was Nagao Hampei, then in his mid-thirties.
Nagao had graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Imperial University of Tokyo’s College of Engineering and had served as civil engineering section chief in Yamagata and Saitama prefectures.
Goto heard of Nagao’s capabilities from Kinoshita Shuichi, a former governor of Yamagata who had come to Taiwan as one of its governors, and invited Nagao to serve as chief of the Civil Engineering Section in the Government-General’s Department of Civil Affairs.
Goto fell in love with this man who possessed a rich imagination yet was remarkably quiet.
He trusted him completely and entrusted the work to him.

During the monsoon season, Keelung is constantly battered by wind and waves.
The water is shallow, and even ships of only 1,000 tons must anchor far offshore, requiring passengers and materials to be transported by barge.
The construction of breakwaters and dredging was indispensable.

Nagao drafted a plan mobilizing both his previous experience and the latest Western techniques, and explained it with all his might for nearly two hours before Kodama Gentaro and Goto.
Throughout the explanation, Kodama and Goto did not interrupt but listened silently.
As Nagao neared the end, Kodama spoke:
“Very well. Goto, let’s have him proceed with this.”
Goto replied, “Agreed. Nagao, go ahead with it.”
The immediacy of their decision stunned Nagao, and afterward he devoted himself entirely to the task.

Most of the construction materials for the Taiwan north–south railway—freight cars, passenger cars, rails, sleepers, stone, cement, coal—were enormous in both weight and volume.
All had to be imported from the Japanese mainland or from the West.
They were brought by ship to Keelung and Kaohsiung and distributed from there.
The construction of the railway and the development of the ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung had to advance simultaneously.
The entire great enterprise of constructing the port of Keelung—central to Taiwan’s development—was entrusted to Nagao, who poured his heart and soul into it, completing the project on schedule.
Afterward he held various posts and ultimately transferred to the Government-General of Korea, where he died.

Before the Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was Qing territory, but the Qing government had no intention of developing the island.
Just as residents have household registers, land should have cadastral records—owner, lot number, land category, and boundaries.
On Taiwan before Japanese rule, local powerful families competed for land, and the government responsible for managing land was practically nonexistent.
The Government-General inherited this chaotic situation.

At the start of Japanese rule, land tax was normally the primary source of revenue for administration.
However, Taiwan’s land cadastre was ambiguous and unclear.
A full-scale land survey was indispensable.
The “Temporary Taiwan Land Survey Bureau” was established, with Goto as its director, and the young Nakamura Zeikō was selected as deputy director, effectively overseeing the project.
Nakamura organized over 800 Government-General officials into dozens of teams, each equipped with a theodolite, and dispersed them across the entire island.
Including local officials and residents, a total of 1.47 million people were mobilized over seven years.

Nakamura had graduated from the First Higher School and the Faculty of Law at the Imperial University of Tokyo.
He served in the Ministry of Finance and as tax chief of Akita Prefecture, where he gained the trust of Vice Minister Tajiri Inajiro, who recommended him for assignment to the Government-General of Taiwan, where he became involved in frontier development.
As a result of the land survey, the measured area expanded from 370,000 hectares to 630,000 hectares, and land tax revenue soared from 870,000 yen to 2.98 million yen.
At the same time, the Government-General purchased the land of absentee landlords—known as “great landlords”—and transferred ownership to tenant farmers.
Funds for land purchase were raised through bonds issued under the newly enacted “Taiwan Development Bond Act.”

Journalist Takekoshi Yosaburo, a leading writer of the era, observed the survey and wrote in his work History of Taiwan Governance that compared to the land-tax reform of 1874, “one cannot help feeling that it was truly infantile,” and further, that “this was indeed a social revolution in Taiwan, and unlike many revolutions, it sacrificed no one.”

The north–south railway, the construction of the port of Keelung, and the land survey project were called the three great projects of Taiwan.
They were entrusted respectively to Hasegawa Kinsuke, Nagao Hampei, and Nakamura Zeikō, and each appears to have been successfully carried out.

However, these projects required enormous sums of money.
Having already spent huge amounts on the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese government found it difficult to lend further funds.
The issuance of bonds was indispensable.
If the three great projects succeeded, Taiwan would surely achieve self-sufficiency.
Once self-sufficient, major mainland capital would move in seeking profits from sugar, rice, tea, camphor, and timber.
Principal and interest could certainly be repaid.

Kodama and Goto staked everything on negotiations with the mainland government.
At the time of Taiwan’s acquisition, only 30 percent of the Government-General’s revenue came from Taiwan’s own taxes; the remainder depended entirely on subsidies from the mainland.
Talk of “selling Taiwan” even arose in the government and the Diet.
But Kodama and Goto did not waver.

Their last hope was Navy Minister Saigo Tsugumichi.
Goto deeply respected this elder brother of Saigo Takamori, sensing in him a generous and profound humanity.
He also felt a deep human shadow in Tsugumichi’s inner conflict—remaining in the Meiji government as a soldier rather than following his brother into exile in Satsuma.
Ultimately, it was Tsugumichi who acted, allowing the Taiwan Development Bonds to see the light of day.

Nakamura was later chosen as vice president of the South Manchuria Railway when Goto became its first president, and after Goto left the company, Nakamura became its second president.
After the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1923, he served as mayor of Tokyo at Goto’s strong urging.
He died suddenly of a stomach ulcer on March 1, 1927, at the age of fifty-nine.