Direct police involvement in local administration had been relaxed, many harsh punishments were abolished, and some elements of self-government, albeit of questionable effectiveness, had been introduced to colonial Taiwan.

The indigenous peoples of Formosa Island were still designated as seiban (生蕃, "raw barbarians" or "wild tribespeople"), and treated as inferiors, rather than as equal subjects.

[5] The Seediq people in the vicinity of Musha village had been considered by the Japanese authorities to be one of the most successful examples of this "taming" approach, with Chief Mona Rudao being one of 43 indigenous leaders selected for a tour of Japan a few years earlier.

[6] However, resentment still lingered, due largely to police misconduct, the ongoing practice of forced labor, and the lack of respect for Indigenous beliefs and customs.

A Japanese police officer named Katsuhiko Yoshimura was on patrol in the area, and was offered a cup of wine by Daho Mona as a symbolic gesture.

Shortly before dawn, Mona Rudao led over 300 Seediq warriors in a raid of strategic police sub-stations to capture weapons and ammunition.

A press blackout was enforced, and Governor General Ishizuka Eizō ordered a counter-offensive of two thousand troops to be sent to Musha, forcing the Seediq to retreat into the mountains and carry out guerrilla attacks by night.

[17] Due to internal and external criticism of their handling of the incident, Ishizuka and Hitomi Jirō, his chief civil administrator, were forced to resign in January 1931.

However, Ishizuka's replacement, Ōta Masahiro, also took a harsh approach to controlling Taiwan's indigenous peoples: certain tribes were disarmed and left unprotected, giving their aboriginal enemies an opportunity to annihilate them on behalf of the Japanese administration.

Musha had been regarded as the most "enlightened and compliant" of the aboriginal territories, and the colonial power's inability to prevent the massacre provoked a fear of similar nationalist movements starting in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan itself.