清光緒二十一年(1895)歲次乙未,一紙合約,臺灣割讓日本,紳民不甘淪為異域之地,五月至十月組織義勇聯軍武裝抗日,為臺灣史上寫下可歌可泣,永誌不忘的抗日故事。然除劉永福黑旗軍頑強抗日,史上諸多記載外,其他抗日保臺的英雄事蹟,付之闕如。一向被遺忘的婦女,其實在乙未之役並未缺席,例如臺灣在地女性黃蘭妹等一百多位婦女,與親族站在最前線衝鋒陷陣;甲午之役抗日名將左寶貴,為國殉難後,左夫人成立娘子軍抗日;抗法名將孫開華的媳婦張秀容,在丈夫壯烈成仁後組織抗日軍;劉永福子女組織的劉家軍、娘子軍與父並肩抗戰等。乙未之役的戰爭地點遍佈臺灣各地,為讓戰役的歷史脈絡更為清晰,以日本最早的民間畫報《風俗畫報》,隨戰事發展出刊的《臺灣征討圖繪》等相關史料,相互映證,得以重新認識了解乙未之役的女性。晚清《點石齋畫報》的文字圖像寶庫,保存了婦女參與乙未之役的圖像,雖然篇幅不多,參戰的實證因此長存。
In the 21st Yiwei year of the Guangxu Emperor in Ching Dynasty (1895), the Treaty of Shimonoseki provided for the cession of Taiwan to Japanese rule. Rising vigorously to save Taiwan, gentries and commoners formed volunteer allied force to launch anti-Japanese activities from May to October in that year that manifests their bravery and fortitude in serving the nation and leaves behind unforgettable anti-Japanese battle stories in Taiwan's history. In addition to the documental records of Yung-Fu Liu who took the field against the Japanese troops with the Black Flag Army to persist in a conviction of safeguarding Taiwan, it highlights the lack of other heroic deeds of persistence in combating Japanese troops and safeguarding Taiwan. In fact, women were not absent from the Yiweu Battle. There were 100-more women participating in this battle including Lan-Mei Huang who charged the enemy lines with their kinsmen. Wife of the Chinese Gen. Tso Pao-Kuei who lost his life during the Sino-Japan Chia-Wu War organized one women's army corps to fight against the Japanese troops. Hsiu-Jung Chang, the daughterin-law of Kai-Hua Sun who was the highest-ranking military officer in Taiwan during the Sino-French war, organized an anti-Japanese force after her husband died a hero's death, and Liu family force and women's army corps organized by Yung-Fu Liu's children who fought against their enemies with their father in the battle. The locations of battlefields of Yiwei Battle were everywhere in Taiwan that manifest the explicit historical context of battles. ”Customs Pictorial,” the earliest one civilian pictorial in Japan, and historical sources of ”Drawing of Punitive Military Expedition in Taiwan” published in the wake of the war thus corroborate each other that develops a better understanding of women who participated in the Yiwei Battle. The texts and graphics in ”Dian Shi Zhai Pictorial Magazin” in late Ching Dynasty have witnessed women's participation in the battle, thus preserving the substantial evidence of women's participation in battles despite a few records.