Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II.
Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
Photo: Taipei Times
The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis powers were defeated by the Allies. Taiwan was part of Japan from 1895, following the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed with the Qing Empire, until Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945.
Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of “the people of the Republic [of China]” experienced in a gesture of “obsequity to Japan” disqualified Lai from being the Republic of China’s (ROC) president, Ma said yesterday.
Ma said he on Thursday urged Lai to stop ignoring the issue of comfort women to placate Japan, but did not anticipate that Lai would distort World War II history by emphasizing the war in Europe at the expense of the war in China, he said.
Photo: CNA
Lai’s “distortion and mutilation of history committed in the service of kowtowing to Japan pains the heart,” Ma said.
“As members of the Zhonghua minzu [中華民族, Chinese ethnic group], we must not allow Japan’s savage invasion of China — which led to numerous deaths among the people of the Republic [of China] — to be erased, distorted, forgotten or downplayed,” he said.
Lai should be reminded of the people who lost their lives resisting Japan during the eight years of war, including Taiwanese who died resisting Japanese colonialism, he added.
Separately, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday attended an exhibition marking the anniversary of “victory in the war of resistance and Taiwan’s liberation.”
Taiwanese must be grateful for their forebears’ contribution to democracy, peace and prosperity during World War II, Chu said.
“Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and the KMT’s leadership during eight years of war made the liberation of Taiwan and the good times we enjoy today possible,” he said.
The Cairo Declaration in 1943 and Potsdam Declaration in 1945 specified the return of Taiwan proper and Penghu to the ROC, he added.
The KMT’s interpretation of the Cairo Declaration as the legal basis for Taiwan’s “return” to the ROC after World War II has long been challenged by academics, who say the Treaty of San Francisco signed on Sept. 8, 1951, was the only legal document to determine Taiwan’s status.
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