Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) yesterday called for a military parade to mark “the 70th anniversary of the end of the war against Japan,” saying that the right to the nation’s interpretation of the war could not be lost to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, which the Republic of China — as well as the PRC — refers to as “the war against Japan.” Lin, during a question-and-answer session on the legislative floor, asked Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) whether the government plans to hold events and ceremonies to commemorate the anniversary.
“We will launch various events, including a major conference on the war on the East Asian front, in which the history of the war against Japan would be comprehensively and correctly presented,” Mao said.
“The reason I’m calling for events to be held is because, with them, the relationship between the war against Japan and Taiwan and the Pescadores could then be highlighted. For without [the war], Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) would not have gone to the Cairo Conference, and the decision to return Taiwan and Penghu to the Republic of China after the war would not have been made,” Lin said.
Lin called for a military parade, which Minister of National Defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻) said would take place in July and referred to as “a demonstration of military power.”
The lawmaker found the term “grating to the ears,” saying that he has always felt that the Ma administration is “a bit timid on this issue.”
“I also called for a military parade for the 100th birthday of the ROC [in 2011], but it turned out that the ceremony, which was a military parade in content, was called a ‘national defense performance,’” he said.
Regardless of the name, the military ceremony would take place at Hukou military base in July, Kao said.
Lin approved of the date, “since July 7 marks the official beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War,” and as the PRC is to have military parades in September and October.
“It would be better not to have our parade too close to theirs in terms of timing,” he said.
The lawmaker also advised the ministry to invite veterans who fought in the war against Japan to lead the parade — an arrangement the ministry said it would consider.
“The president should also be invited,” Kao said.
“This year also marks the 120th anniversary of the 1895 battle between the Taiwanese and the Japanese army, which planned to take over Taiwan after signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki with the Qing Empire,” Lin told Council of Hakka Affairs Minister Liu Ching-chung (劉慶中).
Lin used a few slides to present the brave actions of the Hakka people, “who fought in the battle in the greatest numbers among ethnic groups, and included female Hakka fighters.”
However, netizens found that his slide introducing female Hakka warriors mistakenly contained A-chin (胡阿錦), a man.
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