80 Years Since the End of WWII: How Japan's Surrender Shaped Taiwan’s History

TaiwanPlus News

80 years ago, Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II ended its colonial rule over Taiwan, beginning a new chapter in the island’s history under the Republic of China. Historians say the decision set the stage for Taiwan’s modern political landscape.

Transcript

00:0080 years ago, on August 14, 1945, in the palace behind me, Japan's Emperor Hirohito was about

00:22to make a decision that would impact the lives of people in Taiwan, then a colony of Japan.

00:28Just days earlier, on August 6, the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

00:34On August 8, the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, and on August 9, the United States

00:41dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

00:43Let there be no mistake, we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.

00:51If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the

00:57like of which has never been seen on this earth.

01:01With pressure mounting, the Emperor chose to surrender.

01:04That decision changed the fate of one of its colonies.

01:07One that held an important status in Japan's empire-building ambitions, Taiwan.

01:13Taiwan plays a role from the early years of the Japanese empire in 1895.

01:19It's going to be first a showcase for the Japanese civilizing experiment.

01:25They're going to take this backwater, this kind of Chinese backwater, and they're going

01:30to model it and make it like modern Japan.

01:33By the end of World War II, Taiwan had been a Japanese colony for half a century, a period

01:38of both considerable development and oppression and violence.

01:42Many Taiwanese were serving in the Japanese military when the Emperor surrendered.

01:46More than 200,000 Taiwanese were mobilized to work and serve in the Japanese military over

01:56the period of the war.

01:59The war ended Japanese rule in Taiwan, but not the violence.

02:13The subsequent Chinese civil war saw the Republic of China, or ROC, lose control of mainland China

02:19before retreating to Taiwan.

02:21Its rule began with a brief period of chaotic violence, then settled into decades of quiet oppression.

02:27two past years, and the war ended in europe.

02:31There were three decades, when the war ended up!

02:34The war ended by Taiwan having been killed two, three years of the war.

02:37After that, there was an early invasion of the war.

02:42It was 37 years old.

02:45The pain that happened to Japan was worse.

02:48When Japan was worse, when Japan was worse, to Japan was worse.

02:53The fall of Japan's empire started a new world order,

03:03ushering in the end of colonialism in Asia and leading to the Cold War.

03:07It also shaped Taiwan's ongoing political landscape,

03:10but it came at a great cost in lives.

03:14Taiwan lost around 40,000 people in World War II,

03:17mostly conscripts and bombing victims.

03:20Across Asia, the war claimed an estimated 20 to 30 million lives,

03:24with the heaviest losses in China,

03:26where up to 20 million died from combat, massacres, famine, and disease.

03:31For its part, Japan lost 2.5 to 3.1 million people,

03:36including more than 400,000 civilians,

03:39with 90,000 dying in the March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo alone.

03:44Captured Japanese films show the Emperor Hirohito

03:47surveying the ruins of his capital on the eve of surrender.

03:50Wherever he looks, there's nothing but desolation,

03:53heralding the end of Japan's opium dream of world conquest.

03:57Although the Imperial Palace made it through the war largely unscathed,

04:00Emperor Hirohito had seen the ruins of Tokyo nearby here

04:03and would have carried that memory with him

04:05as he made his way to his bunker to record his surrender speech.

04:09It aired the next day on August 15, 1945.

04:13Japan would formally surrender on September 2,

04:16and the next month it would lose control of Taiwan.

04:20Ryan Wu, Jeffrey Chen, and Bryn Thomas in Tokyo for Taiwan Plus.

04:25Firebird'simagines.com

04:43Firebird'sεί Leah

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