Pan Cheng-fa, a 99-year-old veteran, vividly recalls his service for China against the Japanese in World War II. However, he becomes agitated when the conversation shifts to the role of the communist forces who were, at the time, in an uneasy alliance with his republican government. “We gave them weapons, equipment—we strengthened them,” Pan stated at an event in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the war’s end.
As China plans a major military parade in Beijing next month to mark the end of the war, both Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China) and the People’s Republic of China are engaged in a bitter conflict over the historical narrative and who deserves credit for the victory. The full-scale Japanese invasion of China began in 1937 and continued until Japan’s surrender in 1945, at which point the island of Taiwan, after decades of Japanese rule, was handed over to the Republic of China.
“After Japan was defeated, the communists’ next target was the Republic of China,” Pan added, referring to the resumption of the civil war that led to the victory of Mao Zedong’s forces and the republican government’s retreat to Taiwan in 1949.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party frequently highlights its struggle against the Japanese, but much of the fighting was done by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek’s republican government. Furthermore, it was the Republic of China that signed the peace treaty as an allied nation. “During the Republic of China’s war of resistance against Japan, the People’s Republic of China didn’t even exist,” said Chiu Chui-cheng, Taiwan’s top China-policy maker, on August 15, the anniversary of the Japanese surrender. “But in recent years, the Chinese communist regime has repeatedly distorted the facts, claiming it was the Communist Party who led the war of resistance.”
The Mainland Affairs Council, led by Chiu, alleged this month that the communists’ strategy at the time was “70% about strengthening themselves, 20% dealing with the republican government, and 10% about opposing Japan,” a long-standing accusation that the Chinese Communist Party has denied.
Taiwan’s own anniversary events are much more subdued and only mention the communists to criticize them. A recent defense ministry concert in Taipei featured performers dressed as WWII-era republican soldiers and images of the Flying Tigers, the volunteer U.S. pilots who flew for the republican Chinese air force. The performance program stated, “History affirms that the War of Resistance was led and won by the Republic of China.”
China has fired back at what it sees as a misrepresentation of the Chinese Communist Party’s role. In an online commentary, the party’s official People’s Daily warned against attempts to “distort and falsify the Chinese Communist Party’s role as the country’s backbone” in the fight against Japan.
China claims the victory belongs to all Chinese people, including those in Taiwan, and celebrates the fact that the war’s end in 1945 led to Taiwan, a Japanese colony since 1895, being “returned” to Chinese rule as part of the peace agreement. Taiwan counters that no agreement mentioned handing Taiwan over to the Chinese Communist Party-run People’s Republic of China, which was not founded until late 1949.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te marked the surrender anniversary with a Facebook post stating that aggression would be defeated, a clear jab at Beijing’s military threats against the island. The People’s Republic of China claims it is the successor state to the Republic of China and that Taiwan is an inherent part of its territory, a view that Taipei’s government vehemently opposes.
The Taiwanese government has urged its citizens not to attend China’s military parade, warning against reinforcing Beijing’s territorial claims and its version of history. Veteran Pan, whose family members were brutalized after being left behind in the civil war while he escaped to Taiwan, believes Beijing’s parade has nothing to do with him. “I can’t say anything good about the communists,” he said.
