Plans for a military museum that is being built in Taipei have drawn criticism for focusing on the military’s roots in China rather than Taiwan’s local history.
The National Military Museum, which is undergoing construction in the city’s Zhongshan District (中山), is to demonstrate the history of the nation’s armed forces from its inception in China to the modern age, a Ministry of National Defense report to the Legislative Yuan said.
The historical narrative is to be composed of three parts, starting with the military’s founding in China, its activities through the Cold War after its retreat to Taiwan and the armed forces in the modern age, the report said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
The narrative’s silence about Taiwan’s military history prior to the arrival of Chinese nationalist forces reflects the tension between settler and localist historiography that continues to cause strife in Taiwan, Hung Chih-wen (洪致文), former chairman of the Taiwan Railway Museum Preparatory office, said on Tuesday.
The military understandably wishes to maintain the narrative that its history began with the Whampoa Military Academy in China, but having a museum that overlooks parts of Taiwanese history would create blind spots, said Hung, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Geography.
The museum would not address wars predating the retrocession that had a profound effect on Taiwanese historical experience, which should be the aim of a national-level military museum, he said.
Another subject that the museum overlooks is the presence of US military bases in Taiwan that changed so many lives, he said.
“The National Military Museum needs to decide if it is a museum for the armed forces alone or one that explores the impact of military activity on the entire society,” he said.
The planned museum lacks a critical perspective on the history of Whampao, and the military’s participation in atrocities and human rights violations during the White Terror era, Lo said.
That the uniform of major-general Peng Meng-chi (彭孟緝) — who ordered troops to fire on civilians in Kaohsiung during the 228 incident — would be on display at the museum shows that its planners refuse to confront the negative aspects of the military’s history, he said.
The armed forces have done a lot of good for the nation, but it would not truly be a Taiwanese military until it acknowledges its past mistakes, he said.
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