China Focus: Taiwan marks 70th anniversary of recovery from Japanese occupation

Taiwan commemorated the 70th anniversary of the recovery of sovereignty from Japanese occupation with solemn ceremonies, festive gatherings and sentimental memory-sharing of past heroes.

The day of Oct. 25, 1945 marked the end of the 50-year Japanese occupation in Taiwan, while in the rest part of China, an eight-year war of resistance against Japan's invasion ended with victory. Across the world, the World War II concluded just a few weeks earlier with the defeat of Fascist nations.

In the same hall where Japan surrendered seven decades ago in Taipei, more than 1,000 people attended a grand ceremony Sunday morning to mark the 70th anniversary of the island's recovery from Japanese occupation.

Ma Ying-jeou, the island's leader, said at the gathering that Taiwan people started to fight against Japanese invaders, with heavy casualties, since the Qing government was forced to cede the island to Japan in 1895, following the defeat in the first Sino-Japanese War.

The eight-year war of resistance against Japanese aggression from 1937 to 1945 was the national defense of the largest scale, heaviest casualties and deepest impact in the Chinese history, Ma said, adding that because of the victory of this war, Taiwan was recovered from Japanese occupation.

It is a duty of every leader of the island to commemorate this part of history, he said.

He said he hoped people today could understand the cruelty of the war, the difficulty to win the war, and value today's hard-earned peace and prosperity.

On Sunday afternoon, over a thousand Taipei residents, including many families, also gathered in a main street to mark the anniversary.

Some Taiwanese who fought against Japanese occupation and martyr descendants attended a seminar in a history museum to share the memory and honor the heroes.

Tseng Dong-sheng, a 87-year-old native of Taiwan, fought against Japanese invaders on the Chinese mainland in the 1940s. Tseng, 13, joined a special squad of Taiwan teenagers led by Li Youbang, a renowned general from Taiwan, in east China's Zhejiang Province.

"We did radio programs in the Japanese language to destroy the enemy's morale. We helped nursing the sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals. And we mobilized people to plunge into the anti-Japanese national salvation movement," Tseng said at the seminar.

"I am a clear proof that Taiwan people fought side by side with people in the rest part of China against Japanese aggression and contributed to the victory," he said.

Kai-Ping Shaw, a Taipei-based forensic pathologist, recalled the story of his father and mother hastening secretly to the mainland from Taiwan to fight Japanese invaders. His great grandfather led a major resistance battle against Japanese invasion in 1895 in southern Taiwan, and his grandfather died in that battle.

"The story of my family shows that in the past, most people of Taiwan did not want to be slaves under Japan's colonial rule. They knew the island could only be liberated when the motherland became strong enough to fend off invasion," he said.

On Saturday, the mainland held a high-profile gathering marking the anniversary.

Taiwan's return to the motherland was achieved after the victory in the war against Japanese aggression which had been won with efforts of all Chinese people including the Taiwan compatriots, said top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng at the ceremony.

"China's sovereignty and territorial integrity has not been severed and the fact that the two sides belong to one China has not changed," said Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Endi