President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said various historical documents “clearly showed” that Taiwan “returned to the embrace” of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1945 after Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender to bring an end to World War II.
Although China ceded full sovereignty of Taiwan and all its islands to Japan in perpetuity in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, nobody would have imagined that Taiwan would “return to the embrace” of the ROC 50 years later, Ma said.
The 1943 Cairo Communique, worked out by the ROC president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), then-US president Franklin Roosevelt and then-British prime minister Winston Churchill, said Japan should return Taiwan, Penghu and other territories in northeast China that it had “stolen” from the Chinese, Ma said.
The Potsdam Declaration of 1945 reaffirmed the Cairo Communique and gave the ROC the right to take sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu, he said.
According to Ma, in its Instrument of Surrender, Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and former US president Harry Truman also accepted the idea that sovereignty over Taiwan was settled as the US Department of State said that the US and other Allied powers accepted the exercise of Chinese authority over Formosa, which was surrendered to Chiang.
The 1952 Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (also known as the Treaty of Taipei) affirmed the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, and stated that the Japanese government would renounce any claims to Taiwan, Penghu, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, Ma said, adding that the 1952 treaty “asserted” that the legal successor government of the territories was the ROC.
“All of this is very clear and [represents] legal and political evidence,” Ma said.
Although the Japanese built “some” infrastructure in Taiwan, Ma said, its rule was abusive and high-handed.
“However, all this is history. I am not trying to incite hatred, but while we can forgive the mistake of the Japanese invasion, we must not forget the history of blood and tears,” he said.
Ma made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a special exhibit in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the victory in the war of resistance against the Japanese and the “retrocession” of Taiwan at Taipei Zhongshan Hall yesterday morning.
Zhongshan Hall was where the ROC government accepted the surrender of Japan in 1945.
The exhibition was organized by the Taiwan Provincial Government and the Taipei City Government.
Ma said wars must be honored, but peace must be emphasized, and the reason his administration chose to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the victory in the war of resistance was to make the public feel proud of Taiwan because “Taiwan has become the Taiwanese people’s Taiwan and the ROC’s Taiwan.”
Deputy Taipei Mayor Allen Chiu (邱文祥) pledged to build Taipei into “the capital of all Chinese of the 21st century.”
Taiwan Provincial Government Governor Lin Jung-tzer (林政則) said the eight-year war of resistance was led by Chinese Nationlist Party (KMT) troops and because of their victory, Taiwan and Penghu were able to “retrocede” from the hands of the Japanese.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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