The Treaty of San Francisco should be taught at schools to correct the historical record on Taiwan’s legal status following the end of World War II, senior presidential adviser Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) said on Friday.
He made the remarks at a news conference hosted by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ngalim Tiunn (張雅琳), the Taiwan Association of University Professors and the Taiwan Statebuilding Party.
The treaty signed in 1951 ended the Allied occupation of Japan and Japanese territorial claims over Taiwan and Penghu, whose status was to be determined at a later time according to principles of self-determination.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Treaty of San Francisco should be taught as a pivotal legal document defining the legal status of Taiwan and its outlying islands, Yao said.
However, the nation’s education has long emphasized the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Declaration, he said.
The Cairo Declaration outlined the WWII Allies’ contention that, after the Japanese surrender, territory that Japan had “stolen” from China — including Taiwan and Penghu — should be returned to China.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has long claimed that this and the Potsdam Declaration gave China the right to resume sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu. It argues the Cairo Declaration is a legal document that establishes the Republic of China’s (ROC) claim.
The preferential historical treatment of two declarations at the expense of the more legally significant treaty reflected the orthodoxy of the KMT, which sought to legitimize its rule over Taiwan, Yao said.
The narrative of Taiwan’s supposed liberation by KMT troops and Taiwan’s celebration of Double Ten National Day marking the anniversary of the ROC’s founding on Oct. 10, 1911, has no basis in fact or international law, Yao said.
The historiography surrounding the Cairo Declaration perpetuated by the KMT was a smokescreen for its illegal occupation and repression of Taiwan, World United Formosans for Independence chairman Richard Chen (陳南天) said.
Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairperson Chen Yue-miao (陳月妙) said the unconditional surrender of Japan in 1945 did not constitute a transfer of the right to govern Taiwan from Japan to the ROC.
The “retrocession” of Taiwan to China was a myth created and reinforced by the KMT during the White Terror period, he added.
Taiwan’s undefined legal status under the Treaty of San Francisco means that Taiwanese have the sole right to decide the nation’s future, Union of Taiwanese Teachers vice president Pan Wei-you (潘威佑) said.
Taiwan Statebuilding Party Chairman Wang Hsin-huan (王興煥) said that the treaty, being a later and formal agreement, superseded the Cairo Declaration under recognized principles of international law.
The narrative surrounding WWII and Taiwan’s retrocession to China should be abrogated in favor of a more factually accurate history that emphasizes Taiwanese autonomy, he said.
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