Sailing across turbulent seas, Western missionaries traveled great distances to come to Taiwan more than one hundred years ago. They were determined to cross the oceans to spread the word of God, yet their passion to evangelize was met with hardships, poverty and, worst of all, cultural confrontations. Seeing the poor health that people were in, they began practicing medicine, and through that means preached the Gospel. Hence their arrival also marked the dawn of Western medicine in Taiwan.

Taiwan's Western medical history first unfolded in 1865, when Dr. James L. Maxwell founded Sinlau Hospital in Tainan. Later, Dr. George Mackay set up a hospital in northern Taiwan, and Dr. David Landsborough in mid-Taiwan. Rev. William Campbell established the first school for the blind, and Dr. George Gushue-Taylor founded Taiwan's first leprosarium. These brave missionaries deserve to be called the forerunners of Taiwan's medical service.

The roads they walked were not at all easy. When Dr. George Mackay arrived in northern Taiwan, he was ridiculed, spat at, scolded, and even stoned by the locals, yet he was determined to serve them. Anxious to communicate with his patients, this Canadian missionary learned to speak fluent Taiwanese in five months. Rev. Campbell, called a "foreign devil" by Taiwanese, was almost stabbed to death. As for Dr. Landsborough, when malaria greatly affected his health, the church wanted to transfer him to a more hospitable place. However, he declined due to his love for Taiwan, which he considered his second home. His wife even volunteered to donate four skin grafts from her thigh for a boy in need of an operation. All of these people were beset by adversities, yet their unwavering trust in God and love for Taiwan gave them the strength to persist.

The love and persistence they demonstrated was passed on. Three decades after Dr. Maxwell arrived, Taiwan became a colony of Japan. Most Japanese saw Taiwanese as second class citizens, yet physicians Takagi, Horiuchi and Inoue came to Taiwan and worked for the island's medical development.

Dr. Takagi was the principal of the Taiwan Governor's Medical School, the institution that educated excellent doctors such as Tu Chung-ming, Chiang Wei-shui and Han Shih-chuan. He did not prohibit students from speaking in Taiwanese, and he sent students abroad to further their medical knowledge. Dr. Horiuchi also shouldered the responsibility of Taiwan's medical education. He learned Taiwanese, and he sided with students in a protest to prevent the expulsion of a fellow student from the school. Dr. Inoue showed the true meaning of love by helping Taiwanese aborigines, who had killed his father. He never held a grudge against these people, but instead he lovingly served them with his medical knowledge for over three decades.

The selfless contribution of these missionaries and Japanese educators helped motivate Taiwanese doctors to engage in the field of Western medicine.

At that time, people in Taiwan were faced with troubles such as foreign invasion, colonization, civic strife, opium addiction, and other humiliations inflicted upon them by foreign powers. But the elite of Taiwan's society tried the best they could to protect their people's lives with their medical knowledge and social dedication. For example, Tsai Ah-hsin, Taiwan's first female doctor, attended Taiwan's first women's school, founded by Dr. Mackay.

Doctors enjoyed a good income and high social status. To coast along and enjoy life was an obvious option for them, yet many Taiwanese physicians opted to choose the road less traveled. Out of love for their country, they played important roles in Taiwan's social reform. Huang Yu-chieh worked for the abolition of the old Chinese custom of binding the feet of women. Han Shih-chuan and Lai Ho wrote to speak up for justice in Taiwan. Chiang Wei-shui tried to bring dignity to Taiwan and his countrymen by promoting nationalist consciousness.

Furthermore, these doctors conscientiously fulfilled their medical responsibility. Tsai Ah-hsin worried about the dangers inherent in the unsanitary traditional ways of practicing midwifery, so she trained midwives with the necessary medical knowledge. Dr. Tu Chung-ming saw how Taiwanese doctors refused to abandon their wealth and serve aborigines living in remote areas, so he eagerly trained aboriginal doctors. He also studied opium, morphine and venomous snakes, and he invented a way to gradually get opium addicts out of the black hole of addiction. Lai Ho burnt patients' unpaid bills at the end of each year and gave most of his income to help the poor and needy.

All these Western missionaries and Japanese and Taiwanese physicians had one thing in common: they selflessly and lovingly dedicated their lives to Taiwan's medical development. Throughout the one hundred years from 1860 to 1960, the doctors that we are going to introduce in the sidebars on the following pages served people with unconditional love. Their spirit is indeed worth commemorating.

The most precious and the most fragile thing in the world is life. The medical profession is a sacred mission to protect countless lives. These doctors set excellent examples for physicians nowadays. We hope we can not only commemorate them, but also promote their spirit of love and altruism forever.