The Republic of China’s (ROC) war of resistance against Japan is not over and efforts are still needed to protect the nation from the polarization and havoc caused by pro-independence individuals cultivated by Japan, a retired army general said yesterday.
Former Veterans Affairs Commission chairman Hsu Li-nung (許歷農) made the remarks in a speech at the Taipei launch for a book about the Second Sino-Japanese War, which was published to mark the 70th anniversary of the “ROC’s recovery of Taiwan” on Oct. 25, 1945.
“Following the end of World War II, the ROC government began reconstruction of its revival base of Taiwan, an island strategically located in the Western Pacific and in a sea route vital for Japan’s shipment of daily supplies and strategic materials,” Hsu said.
While the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation mandated that Japan return territories it had stolen from the ROC, including Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands (Penghu) and Manchuria, Tokyo has not been able to reconcile itself to those requirements, he said.
Japan has cultivated a large group of pro-Taiwan independence individuals, including 300,000 Japanese who were not deported from Taiwan following the end of the war and 2 million Taiwanese, Hsu said.
“They have endeavored for years to infiltrate Taiwan’s major political parties, the political arena, the army, judicial organizations and the media in an effort to create social divisions, cause damage and push for independence,” he said.
“I do not think I have to name these pro-independence people since we all know pretty much who they are,” said Hsu, a former director of the army’s Department of General Political Warfare who is now chairman of the pro-unification New Alliance Association.
The war against Japan is far from over, he said, citing the application of the US-Japan Security Treaty to Taiwan and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s effort to revise Japan’s constitution.
“We must make a collective effort to save the ROC and the Zhonghua minzu [Chinese ethnic group, 中華民族],” he added.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who arrived at the book launch after Hsu’s speech, said that while the ROC paid dearly for the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan, its effort succeeded in keeping Japanese troops pinned down and turned the tables on them in the World War II.
“The ROC’s significant efforts in World War II have been internationally recognized. This is a historical fact that cannot be ignored,” he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS