Exhibitions across Strait memorialize war victory

A photo exhibition opened in Taipei on Aug 15 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and Taiwan's restoration to China.

Kuan Chung-ming, the exhibition's curator and former president of Taiwan University, said at the opening ceremony that the war of resistance against Japan was crucial for the survival of the Chinese nation and is a historical memory shared by all Chinese people.

It is worthy of joint commemoration by both sides of the Taiwan Strait, yet the Democratic Progressive Party authorities in Taiwan have not held any large-scale commemorative events, he said.

"If the DPP won't do it, we'll do it ourselves, and we will pass on this historical memory," Kuan said, adding that the monthlong exhibition aims to encourage more people to participate and help preserve this important history.

On Aug 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, 14 years after it invaded Northeast China and eight years after its full-scale invasion of China. Around the date this year, people on both the Chinese mainland and in Taiwan are commemorating the important historical events through exhibitions, seminars, visits and art displays.

Shared history

In July 1894, Japan launched a war of aggression against China. In April 1895, the defeated Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) government was forced to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan.

After Japan occupied Taiwan in 1895, the people of Taiwan engaged in relentless resistance. Over 50,000 of these people joined mainland resistance efforts during World War II, motivated by their mission to save the motherland and to save Taiwan.

On Oct 25, 1945, the ceremony to accept Japan's surrender in the Taiwan province of the China war theater of the Allied powers was held in Taipei. From that point on, China recovered Taiwan.

Documents like the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation mandated Taiwan's return to China. Japan surrendered under the terms of these documents, and Taiwan was officially restored to China on Oct 25, 1945.

Ren Dongmei, a research fellow at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Taiwan's restoration, which was celebrated by local residents as the end of the island's colonial oppression, confirmed that Taiwan is a part of China, and bonds people on the two sides of the Strait as members of a community with common interests and a shared future.

Wu Yongping, director at the Institute for Taiwan Studies at Tsinghua University, said Taiwan's restoration to China holds multifaceted significance, as its return healed the "deep wound" in the nation's history that Taiwan became a Japanese colony when China was poor and weak.

"With Taiwan's restoration, China once again became a unified and complete country. This moment was crucial for the development of modern China," Wu said.

The return was even more meaningful to the people of Taiwan, who were treated as second-class citizens — discriminated against and oppressed under 50 years of Japanese colonial rule, so many longed to return to the motherland, he said.

So when the Chinese Kuomintang government came to take over Taiwan from the Japanese colonial power, Taiwan people welcomed them with great excitement, Wu said.

"Men, women, young and old, all dressed nicely to greet their compatriots from the motherland."

Liu Xiangping, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Nanjing University, said, "The victory in the war and Taiwan's restoration to China powerfully safeguarded our sovereignty and territorial integrity, putting an end to a humiliating history of enslavement by foreign aggressors."

He said that the Taiwan question arose from the past decline and turmoil of the Chinese nation, and looking at it from today's perspective, the strength of the Chinese nation is the strongest guarantee for safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Taiwan compatriots were an important part of the war of resistance against Japanese aggression, and Taiwan's restoration was a crucial outcome of the victory of the war, Liu said, adding that "Forgetting history is a betrayal".