President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday praised what he called the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s victory against Japanese armed forces in 1945, saying without this triumph, Taiwan would not have “returned” to the embrace of the Republic of China (ROC).
Describing the war of resistance against the Japanese as the “most difficult and glorious days in the history of the Chinese nation,” Ma said tens of millions of lives were lost during the eight-year period.
“The public must not forget about this period. Nor should we allow the history to be altered or distorted,” he said. “When one country wants to destroy another, it will begin destroying its history. So it is the responsibility of every patriotic citizen to understand, preserve and protect our history.”
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Japan ruled Taiwan from 1895, following the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed with the Qing Empire, until its defeat in World War II in 1945. The ROC was founded on Jan. 1, 1912.
Ma’s remarks came in the wake of an editorial recently published by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mouthpiece, the People’s Daily newspaper, which attributed victory in the eight-year war of resistance against the Japanese to the CCP.
Ma yesterday was attending an activity marking Soldier’s Day and the 65th anniversary of the victory against Japan.
Ma said that in April 1946 the government designated Sept. 3 as a national day in commemoration of the victory and made it Soldier’s Day in 1955.
“Soldier’s Day is not only a day for soldiers, but also an important day for the country’s rebirth and Taiwan’s return to the embrace [sic] of the ROC,” he said.
Ma said the 1943 Cairo communique, worked out by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), then-US president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill, said Japan would be stripped of Taiwan, Penghu and other territories in Northeast China that it had “stolen” from the Chinese.
The Potsdam Declaration of 1945 reaffirmed the Cairo Communique and gave the ROC the right to resume sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu, Ma said.
While independence activists doubt the validity of the 1943 declaration, saying it was little more than a press release, Ma yesterday said the 1943 and 1945 declarations were legally binding in the context of international and domestic laws.
The 1952 Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (also known as the Treaty of Taipei) affirmed the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, and stated that the Japanese government would renounce any claim to Taiwan, Penghu, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, he said, adding that the 1952 treaty “asserted” that the legal successor government of the territories was the ROC.
“If the Nationalist [KMT] army had not defeated the Japanese, it would have been impossible for Japan to ‘return’ Taiwan, Penghu and the three northeastern Chinese provinces,” he said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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