Posted on 02/28/2007 6:13:31 AM PST by zook
Contrary to claims that Chiang Kai-shek (ÊY½éʯ) should be held accountable for the 228 Incident, a group of academics said yesterday that the Japanese colonial government's scheming was to blame for the violence.
A recent official report concluded that Chiang should bear responsibility for the incident, and on Monday President Chen Shui-bian (êË®±â) called Chiang the "true killer" in the violence.
But Academia Sinica fellows Chu Hung-yuan (Öì›ÄÔ´) and Huang Chang-chien (üSÕý¡) and four other academics called a press conference yesterday to challenge this portrayal of Chiang.
"The incident took place when Taiwan had just been handed over by Japan to China. As Japan was reluctant to give Taiwan over to China, it used economic measures to cause inflation and food shortages before it left," Chu said.
Chu said that Taiwan's economic situation -- which created resentment against the government from China -- was the result of Japan's premeditated economic attack on Taiwan.
The academics also criticized former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (ñRÓ¢¾Å) for saying that "government suppression was the main cause of the 228 Incident."
"What Ma said was contrary to the facts. The government had no choice but to send in the army to suppress the violence launched by the people," Huang said.
In other developments, Independent Legislator Li Ao (Àî°½) told a press conference yesterday that the "sadness of the 228 Incident was created by politicians."
"The Democratic Progressive Party has been saying that tens of thousands of people died in the incident. Only about 800 people died at that time," he said.
He said the executive administrator of Taiwan at the time, Chen Yi (êƒx), had sent a confidential telegram to Chiang to say that the death toll in the incident was about 800.
These guys are beyond pathetic.
Much of the 228 documentation comes from US military sources and George Kerr (the Taiwan expert for the US during WWII). As for food shortages, the big problem is that Chiang was shipping all the food in Taiwan to support his failing efforts in China. As my father-in-law noted, nobody starved during WWII (except the Japs, who wouldnt play the black market), but food became real scarce soon after the KMT moved in.
These guys are just apologists for the old regime.
You could be right about the motives of these historiand, but Academia Sinica doesn't usually hire or suffer political hacks.
"historians," not whatever that jumble was that I typed.
Why hate?
No hate here, just an observation. The man is willing to destroy Taiwan in order to "save" it.
Ooooooooooooo-kay then...
Has anyone contacted Clint Eastwood for Japan's side of the story?
Chen is proving himself to be a "social democrat," along the lines of the American Democrat party and the European left. He's a "multi-culturalist" who disparages the contributions of Han Chinese and who would sever the island from its Chinese cultural connections. He plays on the fears and emotions of the "native" Taiwanese. His actions regarding "Taiwan Independence" can be described at best as brinkmanship and at worst as increasing the possibility of a cross-straits war.
The US has, properly, I think, warned Chen about his efforts to de-Chinafy the island. With any luck, the voters will toss the DPP out of the presidential palace in the next election.
It's kind of funny. When my family and I lived in Pingtung a few years ago, we'd often go swimming at the nearby sugar company's public pool. Then just this year I found out that the whole sugar company complex had been a WWII Japanese POW camp--that is, a camp run by the Japanese that held American pows!
Sounds like the people like John Edwards who say Israel is the the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East (and the world).
The US has, properly, I think, warned Chen about his efforts to de-Chinafy the island.
Yeah, yeah, you love the Chi-Coms, I don't give a flip. Taiwan has had a distinct history and government from mainland China for the vast majority of recorded time. It's been functioning as a sovereign country for 50 years, far ahead of the People's Republic every step of the way, even during their respective dictatorships.
It is ahistorical and outright blind to deny the need to correct the cultural whitewashing imposed by the KMT under Chiang.
Chen wants to correct one cultural whitewashing with another. Chen wants to deny the right of half the island's population to maintain a link to China.
Minus the Japanese, minus the KMT, Taiwan still becomes part of China under virtually any historical scenario.
Whether Chen wants to see it this way or not, Taiwan is going to remain connected to China until such time as both sides see otherwise. The KMT's position (that despite this connection, reunification can only occur under democratic principals) not only fits the historic and political realities, but is the one most likely to keep us out of war with China.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love the Chicoms. Bullshit. I do love China, Taiwan, and all their people. I do believe that war should be avoided, that Taiwan should scrap the TI crap, and that the US should work to improve relations with China.
Essentially, my postion is the same as G.W. Bush, G. Bush, and even Ronald Reagan.
Even the scumbags such as Hu Jintao?
I'm sure you understand the common meaning of the phrase, "I love the Chinese people." It's a collective characterization, not specifically applicable to any particular individual.
As for Hu, I'm sure I would disagree with him on many issues, but he does at least seem "rational." I have no evidence to call him a scumbag and I'm sure President Bush would not call him this. At this point Hu is at worst an adversary, not an enemy.
The problem in post WW2 Taiwan wasn't food shortages, but rather hyper-inflation and a major restructuring needed in the economy on Taiwan. Taiwan at the end of second world war was essentially an agricultural outpost of Imperial Japan and it's economic development for the last 50 years or so had been shaped by planners for that purpose. The problem was because since Taiwan was part of Japan's imperial economic structure, it was protected from the necessity of competition against the rest of the world due to a captive market back home in Japan. It was simply inefficient and after the end of the war, Taiwan lost its primary, almost only market and it's new principal market was both embroiled in a massive civil war and could not afford to takeover Japan's role in Taiwan's economy at the time. It's foolish to blame KMT mismanagement as the cause of the economic crisis on Taiwan in the late 40's because the truth of the matter is, it would have happened irregardless of the government because of the over-riding regional and global economic factors immediately following the war.
p.s. Nobody starved in Germany during the war either, but they did after it. This is because Germany was primarily engaging in systematic looting of occupied territories and manipulating of currencies favorable to the reichsmark to sustain the material prosperity of it's citizens during wartime at the expense of everyone else.
To say that Taiwan had been "just handed over" to China is a stretch. The 228 incident began February 28, 1947, which was sixteen months after the KMT took possession of Taiwan. The problem seems to be that the Chinese ruled Taiwan as a colony, just as the Japanese had done, but less wisely. Whoever was responsible for inflation and food shortages in Taiwan in 1947, it could hardly have been the Japanese.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.