Hau comments are offensive
I find some of former premier Hau Pei-Tsun’s (郝柏村) remarks quite interesting (“Ethnic discrimination seen in KMT attacks, Nov. 21, page 3). I did not say: “good.” I said interesting. He says that the Taiwanese were “loyal subjects of the Japanese emperor.” Well, Hau, just what were the Taiwanese to do?
Their island, Ilha de Formosa, was given to Japan by China as a result of losing a war. Taiwan was a Japanese colony until 1945 and after 1945 it became what amounts to a colony of the Republic of China (ROC). After the war, the Taiwanese did not “invite” the ROC to move to Taiwan. The ROC forced itself upon them.
It does seem odd to me that retired Taiwanese military officers are permitted to move to the mainland, a sworn enemy, and continue to draw their pensions. I know that in the US, we would not be allowed to do the same in certain countries.
As for these officers actually “returning home,” maybe Taiwan should just simply cut its losses and allow them to go without any compensation. Those who possess certain classified information can and should be withheld from departure to an aggressor nation. Yes, this is still permitted in a democracy. This is guarding “state secrets” and should be covered by a state secrets act.
Of course, I understand why Hau would much prefer that people cease discussing, or even thinking about, the 228 Incident. How better to forget who was responsible for it?
This is a great diversion tactic and his light-handed approach to how many people were killed or “disappeared” I think is insulting. How many of his family members went out and never returned? Was his village bombed or pillaged by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) soldiers? Of course not.
Hau, like many others, tends to marginalize those Taiwanese who had to live through the first colonial period under the Japanese and then the “colonization” and abuse by the KMT.
However, I commend the students at Sun Yat-sen University for putting hard and pointed questions to him (“Ex-premier faces protests in Greater Kaohsiung, Dec. 9, page 3). This is about the real history of Taiwan and its people. Revisionist history just will not do.
Tom Kuleck
Greater Taichung
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