The Ministry of National Defense yesterday announced a series of commemorative events planned for the coming months to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The ministry is organizing observances, concerts and calendar and book publications, along with “Family Day” programs where selected military bases are to be open to the public.
“This year is the 70th anniversary of our nation’s victory in the war of resistance against Japan and the retrocession of Taiwan to the Republic of China [ROC],” ministry spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) told a press conference.
“These special events are to commemorate the bravery and daunting efforts of our troops and those who sacrificed their lives for the nation,” Lo said.
“We are not looking to revive past enmity between warring nations, but rather to face history in earnest. That way people can learn from history and not repeat the same mistakes again,” Lo said.
“Family Day” programs will be held at two army bases, one naval base and two air force bases nationwide from September to October,” said Major General Yu Tsung-chi (余宗基), head of the Cultural and Psychological Operations Division of the ministry’s Political Warfare Bureau.
These events are designed to promote interactions between military personnel and the public, with weaponry, armored vehicles and other hardware on display, accompanied by soldier training and skill demonstrations, he said.
There will be an academic conference in July, where Taiwanese and foreign military experts and historians will present their research papers on the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, along with discussions on maritime disputes in East Asia and in the South China Sea.
A major war history exhibition, scheduled to run from August to November, is being prepared by the Armed Forces Museum and Academia Historica to showcase wartime documents, souvenirs, artifacts and photographs, Yu said.
The Second Sino-Japanese War was part of World War II, fought between Allied and Axis powers. It involved the Chinese Nationalist Army, later joined by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army — which later became the People’s Liberation Army — and US military support, fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the war ended when Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on Sept. 9, 1945. However, the US cites an earlier date, when Japan’s official surrender was signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS