The Taiwanese people's contribution to China's resistance against Japan in WWII should be noted, scholars say.
Yesterday, on the eve of Taiwan's Retrocession Day, scholars said a group of Taiwanese who formed a "Taiwan Volunteer Corps" (
"Although the restoration of Chinese rule on Taiwan is already celebrating its 54th anniversary, little progress has been made on the historical study of Taiwanese military contribution to China during its eight-year war with Japan," said Hsu Hsueh-chi (
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE LI HOUSE CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION
Hsu made the remarks at a symposium on the 60th anniversary of the so-called "Taiwan Volunteer Corps." The symposium was organized by a foundation dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage.
"The Taiwan Volunteer Corps was founded in 1939 in China by Li Yu-pang (
"Li's move was cheered by Taiwanese who were taking refuge on the mainland, especially those in the southeastern coastal provinces," Yen said.
"Li's corps provided support to Chinese troops in four main areas: armed campaigns against the Japanese, medical work, production of necessities for the war, and circular morale-boosting missions around the country," she said.
Membership in Li's corps had reached 400 at its peak, with around 100 of them only teenagers who formed a juvenile division of the corps, according to a study by Chinese scholar Lo Zifang (樓?l芳).
"In 1945, Li's corps raised the first ROC flag in Taiwan since the island's cession to Japan 50 years earlier. They fulfilled the wish of Taiwan's people to return to the motherland," she said.
"But the [nationalist] government did not thank Li for his efforts during the war. It suppressed him instead, ordering him to disband the corps after the war, fearing the growing popularity of his corps," she said.
Li escaped persecution during the 228 Incident in 1947 when the government targeted dissidents and suspected communists, Yen said, but died during the White Terror that came in the 1950s.
Sociology scholar Tang Hsi-yung (
"When Li founded the corps, Taiwanese did not enjoy a good reputation among the local people on the mainland," Tang said. "The corps did manage to better the image of Taiwanese somehow."
"The Taiwanese at the time were sometimes considered foreigners by Chinese on the mainland because they came from a Japanese-occupied territory," said historical scholar Yin Chang-yi (??1義), of Fu Jen Catholic University.
"Taiwanese also had a bad reputation among Chinese on the mainland because of their involvement in corrupt businesses. In Fujian's Xiamen, for instance, Taiwanese gangsters established a stronghold there, running whore houses and opium dens," Yin said.
"The Japanese colonial government's policy was to send the island's troublemakers to the mainland. The Japanese wanted these people to damage the image of Taiwanese on the mainland and collect information for them at the same time," Tang said.
Taiwan's bad elements on the mainland tended to fuel the nationalist government's mistrust of Taiwanese people despite efforts by people like members of Li's volunteer corps to prove that Taiwanese were as patriotic as their compatriots on the mainland, Yin suggested.
The 228 accident was the indirect result of this kind of mistrust, he said.
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