Taiwan's Struggle
Voices of the Taiwanese
Edited by Shyu-tu Lee and Jack F. Williams
Rowman & Littlefield
Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Plymouth (U.K.)
2014
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Quotes: [Introduction] (page 14) Shyu-tu Lee and Jack F. Williams
The international community needs to respect the San Francisco Peace Treaty (SFPT) with Japan, signed on September 8, 1951, and accordingly, create an opportunity to let Taiwanese decide their own future, without outsiders' interference and intimidation. One could argue that it is the moral and legal responsibility for all the forty-eight signatory countries, particularly for the United States of America as the principal occupying power, a task left undone from the post-WWII era.
[Chapter 1: Establishing a Taiwan-Centered Identity] by Lee Teng-hui (page 19)
In the 1940s, Japan, the alien regime that had governed Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, was defeated in World War II and compelled to give up Taiwan. Taiwan subsequently came under military occupation of the Chinese Nationalist Party (or Chinese Kuomintang, hereafter KMT) that had earlier joined the alliance of Great Britain and the United States. Taiwan thus was governed by another alien regime, under the name of the Republic of China.
[Chapter 2: Fragment of/f Empires The Peripheral Formation of Taiwanese Nationalism] by Wu Rwei-ren (page 30)
With the defeat of Japan in World War II, Taiwan was again transferred unilaterally by the victors, this time to the Chinese Nationalist (ROC/KMT) regime.
[Chapter 3: Two Different Cultures Taiwan vs. China] by Lee Shiao-feng (page 37)
After World War II, the Chinese military associated with the Allies took over Taiwan.
[Chapter 4: Democratization in Taiwan Lifting the Blacklist] by George Sung (page 47)
After fifty years of Japanese colonial rule, the Nationalist government under the Kuomintang (KMT) took over Taiwan on October 25, 1945.
[Chapter 8: Subjectivity and Tradition in Taiwan Literature] by Tu Kuo-ching (page 99)
After World War II, the Nationalist government took over administrative control of the island and imposed martial law for thirty-eight years (1949 - 1987), and finally, after repeal of martial law, Taiwan became the democratic society that it is.
[Chapter 9: Development of Human Right Consciousness in Taiwan] by Jolan Hsieh (page 108)
Taiwan remained a Japanese colony for fifty years until Japan was defeated at the end of World War II in 1945. ......
After the Cairo Conference of 1943, and again at the Potsdam Conference of 1945, it was determined by the Western allies that Taiwan should be "returned" to China. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Party were accepted at that time as governing the Republic of China (ROC). The KMT military, which was used to support the KMT's battle with the Chinese Communists, took control of Taiwan and has retained control since 1945.
[Chapter 11: Pariah Manifesto The Moral Significance of the Taiwanese Tragedy] by Wu Rwei-ren (page 131)
In Taiwan, Japanese colonial rule triggered the formation of Taiwanese nationalism in the 1920s, but the coercive postwar territorial transfer in 1945 and the founding of the KMT emigre regime in 1949 constrained the further development of Taiwanese nationalism.
[Chapter 12: The Shaping of Taiwan's Status after World War II] by Chen Yi-shen (page 140)
[P] After World War II the United States intervened in the civil war in China as a mediator but failed. ...... However, the U. S. State Department at that time still thought of Taiwan "as a part of China in history despite the 50 years of Japanese reign ...... " "Indeed, technically, the status of the island still needs to be confirmed in the peace treaty with Japan, but the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Declaration, and the Japanese surrender documents signed on September 2, 1945, all indicate the island belongs to China. Furthermore, soon after the victory over Japan, the U.S. had helped the Chinese military take over the island."
[P] It is worth noting here that the State Department considered Taiwan as part of China "from the political and military perspective," but Taiwan's status still needed to be confirmed in the peace treaty with Japan from the international law perspective (that is, technically).
- - - - - (page 140 - 141) - - - - -
From the perspective of the "undetermined status of Taiwan," the KMT's moving to Taiwan in December 1949 was actually a process of "from occupying to exile." However, from the perspective of the U.S. State Department operating before 1949 or the KMT fundamentalists, it was not considered as an "exile," instead they considered it just a move to a remote part of the Chinese territory. However, the U.S. government was concerned about whether or not the defeated KMT military could stabilize Taiwan, rather than whether Taiwan belonged to China (that is, whether the KMT had the right to move to the island with an undetermined status).
- - - - - (page 145) - - - - -
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Percy Spender clearly opposed recognizing the KMT's sovereignty over Taiwan through the treaty. Dulles answered, "The U.S. Government has no intention to recognize the KMT's sovereignty over Taiwan." Spender suggested that the best solution would be that Japan relinquish Taiwan but not specify to whom they relinquish it.
[Chapter 14: America's Security and Taiwan's Freedom] by Jay Tsu-yi Loo (page 166)
..... In the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty Japan merely gave up its title to Taiwan and no beneficiary was named. It is the official position of the United States that the international status of Taiwan is still undetermined. Thus, the Republic of China (ROC) government which rules Taiwan has no sovereignty over Taiwan and the Pescadores. China's claim on Taiwan is weak on both historical and legal grounds.
- - - - - (page 170) - - - - -
[P] What can the U.S. Administration do to preserve Taiwan's de facto independence from the PRC?
[P] First, the United States should make clear its position that the so-called Republic of China government has no legitimate sovereignty over Taiwan and the Pescadores. The legal status of these islands is in abeyance, as discussed above. Some people argue that because the Taiwanese elect the president of the ROC directly, the ROC has gained sovereignty over Taiwan. This is not the case. The ROC is an exiled government of China, which is now ruled by the PRC government. What the Taiwanese voters confer on the ROC government is merely an interim power to administer the affairs of the island, not the authority to determine the legal status of Taiwan. [That authority resides with the people of Taiwan, under the universally accepted principle of self-determination.] So a referendum on the future of Taiwan cannot be conducted by the ROC government, under a law of its creation. The ROC is an alien government, imposed on the Taiwanese by coercion, including a 38-year period of martial law. The democratization of the island has not changed that fact.
[P] Second, Washington should reiterate the U.S. policy that the future of Taiwan must be resolved peacefully and with the express assent of the Taiwanese people. ..... The United States has a moral obligation to intercede in this fashion because it was U.S. forces which liberated Taiwan from Japan in 1945.