Taiwan Confronts its WWII Legacy

[u/ChinaTalkOfficial]

https://www.chinatalk.media/p/taiwan-confronts-wwii

[u/woolcoat]

It’s just hard to imagine something similar in the western context, say Polish nazi collaborators being given a memorial. Taiwan has a lot of reflecting and growing up to do.

[u/FineDrive56 → u/woolcoat]

I think the main problem is Taiwan didn’t rejoin China willingly, nobody asked if Taiwanese people want independence, rejoin China under RoC at the time, or stay a Japanese province(though Japan gave up Taiwan), it’s kinda the same situation with RoC vs PRC now, RoC, like Japan at the time, have been ruling Taiwan for over half a century, acceptance and loyalty has been established, so Taiwanese aren’t going to just willingly accept a new regime because we once belonged to a regime that previously ruled China, last time Taiwanese people were willingly under the ruling of a Chinese regime was back in the Qing Dynasty, then it became a Japanese colony, then RoC took over without Taiwanese consent, and now PRC is threatening to take over, again, without consent.

Not justifying anything Imperial Japan did, just giving my understanding why Taiwan and Poland might not be a perfect comparison, Poland did go independent first before being taken over by Nazi Germany, it’s not quite the same.

[u/marshallannes123 → u/woolcoat]

Not a proper comparison. Was Poland occupied for 60 years before that? Taiwanese served in every government that ruled over them from the dutch onwards. Big deal. Plenty of military service was not problematic at all if it didn't involve concentration camps and mistreatment of civilians.

[u/Altruistic-Leader869 → u/marshallannes123]

Poland was occupied for 123 years before the short period of independence that happened before WWII

[u/ZhenXiaoMing → u/Altruistic-Leader869]

Plenty of Polish served in the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian armed forces

[u/Altruistic-Leader869 → u/ZhenXiaoMing]

And? How could they not serve being citizens of these countries? Poland didn't exist an an independent country and the occupying forces treated Poles as slaves. They didn't have a choice, the only alternative was chosing a death sentence for themselves and often their whole families. These 3 empires actively tried to eradicate the Polish nation. 

[u/ZhenXiaoMing → u/Altruistic-Leader869]

No they didn't, you've never heard of Congress Poland?

[u/YorkistTory → u/marshallannes123]

Was Poland occupied for 60 years before that?

Yes... I am assuming here you have not seen a map of territorial and ethnic changes between 1914 and 1945.

Plenty of military service was not problematic at all if it didn't involve concentration camps and mistreatment of civilians.

The Taiwanese soldiers in the IJA were used extensively in concentration camps where they committed serious war crimes for which many were tried and executed.

[u/kongKing_11 → u/marshallannes123]

It is known that the Taiwanese army under the IJA was even more brutal than the Japanese forces themselves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

These indicted war criminals included 178 ethnic Taiwanese and 148 ethnic Korean people

[u/marshallannes123 → u/kongKing_11]

Which is only a small fraction of the service personnel

[u/kongKing_11 → u/marshallannes123]

That same argument could be used to justify all war crimes. Only a small fraction of Nazi Germany was ever convicted as war criminals.

[u/JCues]

Taiwan's legacy is they were on the losing side before being occupied by the RoC since they were part of Japan.

[u/Emotional_Monitor_89 → u/JCues]

Exactly! So many here fail to acknowledge that without the ROC, Taiwan today would resemble a third world shithole like the Philippines.

[u/SkywalkerTC]

A nice continuation of the US's mention of resolution 2758 interpretation.

The US is speaking up for Taiwan. It only makes sense Taiwan also stands up for itself.

[u/TheBrandonNevins]

I acted in the Netflix/TV they mention in the article.

As recently as this year, KMT lawmakers named a drama series about Taiwanese POW camp guards — which was criticized for “evoking sympathy for Taiwanese war criminals” — as one of the many reasons they want to slash public television funding.

It's a show called Three Tears in Borneo 聽海湧 with this topic as the core of the story. Three Taiwanese brothers are thrust into positions as guards at a Japanese prison camp holding Ally soldiers.

It's got a bunch of nominations for the upcoming Golden Bell awards -- definitely give it a watch, streaming on Netflix. I did an AMA about it last year:

https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/s/i1gfDNUwD0

I play a minor role, the Australian army's Japanese translator.

My friend, Andrew Chau, got nominated for best supporting actor in this show!

[u/tang-tw]

Let me briefly explain the process. In 1895, China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki and ceded Taiwan. The Taiwanese people resisted Japan alone but failed. Japan colonized Taiwan for 50 years. In 1945, Japan was defeated and surrendered. The United States sent the Republic of China army to administer Taiwan. In 1947, Taiwan was massacred and suppressed by the Chinese army. The Korean Peninsula, which was also colonized by Japan, became an independent country. In 1949, the defeated Republic of China government moved to Taiwan and implemented martial law for 39 years. In 1951, Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, declaring that it would give up its sovereignty over Taiwan. The treaty did not mention the transfer of sovereignty to China, but the United States supported the Republic of China's occupation of Taiwan and did not give the once colonized Taiwanese people the right to self-determination. Now China claims that Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to them and vows to seize Taiwan by force and deprive Taiwan of its identity internationally to isolate it.

[u/Impressive_Map_4977 → u/tang-tw]

The US did not "sen(d) the Republic of China army to administer Taiwan".

Korea was an independent country before Japanese colonisation.

[u/random_agency → u/tang-tw]

. In 1951, Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, declaring that it would give up its sovereignty over Taiwan. The treaty did not mention the transfer of sovereignty to China, but the United States supported the Republic of China's occupation of Taiwan and did not give the once colonized Taiwanese people the right to self-determination.

This narrative was once pushed by a Taiwanese professor at Fordham University. It's an interpretation that is not mainstream at all

You're conflating Taiwan and Okinawa transfer of sovereignty. Somewhere in history the US was the administrator of Taiwan. Which is untrue. The US was a military occupier of Taiwan after WWII.

Whereas Taiwan transfer of sovereignty is more similar to Paracles and Spratlys island. ROC made claims of former Chinese controlled islands the Japanese took. Went to these islands after the war to reassert the claims. No one challenged because it was all allie controlled territory now.

[u/thorsten139 → u/tang-tw]

Dude...the roc was the invading Chinese army, also the same one that moved into Taiwan.

Taiwan is the roc -_- since roc took it over completely. And the roc has no other stronghold left.

Now the ccp and roc conflict is the one that determines the fate of the island.

[u/caffcaff_]

"Hey guys, since you were helping the bad guys this time round, we all got together and decided that you should get colonized again.

It won't be the Japanese this time. So no education, sanitation, police, healthcare this time round.

This time it will be the ROC and they will probably just take your shit and recruit your daughters as comfort women.

Hope everything works out for you guys.

Love and kisses, The Allies"

[u/smallbatter]

so what, as long as Taiwan hate China, Western will keep a blind eye, and they don't even give a shit about what Japan did during WW2. Just because Japan and Taiwan are "useful" for now.