The Legislative Yuan has passed new legislation adding four national holidays and making Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors.
That would create a confusing national identity for Taiwanese and the government.
Taiwan Retrocession Day and the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou, and Constitution Day are used by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to indoctrinate Taiwanese, feeding them propaganda to make them think they are Chinese. It is the same case for Teachers’ Day, which marks the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius’ (孔子) birthday.
The “retrocession of Taiwan” refers to Japan handing over Taiwan proper and Penghu to the Republic of China (ROC) in 1945. To the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, it is the only legal basis for the “one China” principle in international law.
On Oct. 25, 1945, the Japanese surrender ceremony took place in Taipei. The ROC’s Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) handed Order No. 1 to General Rikichi Ando, Japan’s last governor-general of Taiwan, saying: “Receiving the territory of Taiwan and the Penghu archipelago.”
After Ando signed the document, Chen delivered a speech proclaiming that Taiwan and the Penghu Islands had rejoined China.
That political show was the so-called “retrocession of Taiwan.” That was not valid in international law. A military occupier does not have the right to hand over the sovereignty of an occupied territory. It is a peace treaty that can determine the sovereignty of an occupied territory after a war. It is the principle of international law.
Ando, as a governor and an army commander, did not have the right to hand over the sovereignty of an occupied territory on behalf of his government.
Then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was aware of the invalidity of the “retrocession of Taiwan.” Therefore, on Jan. 12, 1949, he called then-Taiwan provincial governor Chen Cheng (陳誠) to inform him that until the peace treaty was signed, Taiwan was just a territory under the ROC’s trusteeship.
Most of the Allies, including the US, did not recognize that Japan ceded Taiwan to the ROC. Therefore, on Sept. 8, 1951, the Allies and Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which states that “Japan renounces all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores.”
The statement of the “retrocession of Taiwan” is thus untenable. The “one China” principle that rests its legal basis on that statement is also merely political propaganda.
Designating Retrocession Day as a national holiday by passing new legislation would instill the narrative of “one China” in the general public, reshaping national identity. The international community would also be put under the impression that the Taiwanese government and its people accept the “one China” principle, and China would step up its “united front” efforts by saying that “Taiwan’s restoration to China was a victorious outcome of World War II.”
Hideki Nagayama is the chairman of the Taiwan Research Forum.
Translated by Fion Khan
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