The Republic of China’s (ROC) war of resistance against Japan is not over and efforts are still needed to protect the nation from the polarization and havoc caused by pro-independence individuals cultivated by Japan, a retired army general said yesterday.
Former Veterans Affairs Commission chairman Hsu Li-nung (許歷農) made the remarks in a speech at the Taipei launch for a book about the Second Sino-Japanese War, which was published to mark the 70th anniversary of the “ROC’s recovery of Taiwan” on Oct. 25, 1945.
“Following the end of World War II, the ROC government began reconstruction of its revival base of Taiwan, an island strategically located in the Western Pacific and in a sea route vital for Japan’s shipment of daily supplies and strategic materials,” Hsu said.
While the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation mandated that Japan return territories it had stolen from the ROC, including Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands (Penghu) and Manchuria, Tokyo has not been able to reconcile itself to those requirements, he said.
Japan has cultivated a large group of pro-Taiwan independence individuals, including 300,000 Japanese who were not deported from Taiwan following the end of the war and 2 million Taiwanese, Hsu said.
“They have endeavored for years to infiltrate Taiwan’s major political parties, the political arena, the army, judicial organizations and the media in an effort to create social divisions, cause damage and push for independence,” he said.
“I do not think I have to name these pro-independence people since we all know pretty much who they are,” said Hsu, a former director of the army’s Department of General Political Warfare who is now chairman of the pro-unification New Alliance Association.
The war against Japan is far from over, he said, citing the application of the US-Japan Security Treaty to Taiwan and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s effort to revise Japan’s constitution.
“We must make a collective effort to save the ROC and the Zhonghua minzu [Chinese ethnic group, 中華民族],” he added.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who arrived at the book launch after Hsu’s speech, said that while the ROC paid dearly for the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan, its effort succeeded in keeping Japanese troops pinned down and turned the tables on them in the World War II.
“The ROC’s significant efforts in World War II have been internationally recognized. This is a historical fact that cannot be ignored,” he said.
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