Government-funded videos marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II portrayed a “historically inaccurate” version of the transfer of Taiwanese sovereignty after the war and failed to review the history “from a Taiwan-centered perspective,” a National Chengchi University professor of Taiwanese history said yesterday.
As part of the government’s year-long plan to publicize the role of the Republic of China’s (ROC) armed forces and government in World War II, five videos commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were posted on the “Trending Taiwan” YouTube channel, leading to debate among people who watched them.
The university’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan History chair Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) said that the government reviewed history “through the lens of the ROC [as opposed to that of Taiwan].”
“I have no problem with that, except some parts of the videos were not historically accurate,” Hsueh said.
“The problem is, with regard to the history of Taiwan, what was portrayed was completely wrong,” Hsueh said.
The series of five videos, each about five minutes long, begin in the first video, Settlement, Colonialism and Modernity, with a timeline of Taiwanese history starting in the mid-17th century — when Han Chinese moved to Taiwan and the nation was incorporated into the Qing Dynasty empire — and spanning to the present.
The other four videos portray the ROC leading China to victory over Japan, saying that the ROC is owed a debt of gratitude for its “unequal contributions” to the defeat of the Axis powers and for supporting the end of foreign empires in Asia.
The videos say that World War II would have taken a different course without the ROC’s contributions.
They say that “the ROC was the key force behind the Allied victory over Japan.”
Hsueh said the videos’ repeated mentioning of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender being handed over to Chinese General Ho Ying-chin (何應欽) in 1945 to justify the return of Taiwan to the ROC was “historically inaccurate.”
The document clearly states that Ho, as a representative of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), accepted the Japanese surrender on behalf of the Allied powers, not China, Hsueh said.
“If the government insists that the Japanese Instrument of Surrender effected a transfer of [Taiwanese] sovereignty, does it also claim sovereignty over northern Vietnam, as it was also listed in the document?” Hsueh said.
Neither the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, the Cairo Declaration nor the Potsdam Proclamation are recognized by international law as legal documents to transfer the nation’s sovereignty to the ROC as the videos claim, Taiwan Association of University Professors secretary-general Hsu Wen-tang (許文堂) said.
Both Hsueh and Hsu criticized the omission of events depicted in the first video, including the 228 Incident in 1947, the White Terror era from 1949 to 1987 and other major events of importance to Taiwan.
As of yesterday, the third video in the series, featuring National Chengchi University assistant professor of history Joe Eaton explaining why the ROC is “owed a debt of gratitude,” was the most viewed at 3,536, with 115 comments, 110 likes and 91 dislikes since its release on Wednesday.
The third video sparked heated debate among people on social media.
Ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said the videos’ scripts were written by the ministry after consultation with experts and academics.
The videos are to be officially launched at events that are to be attended by descendants of World War II heroes during their visits to Taiwan next month and in September, Kao said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal