According to journalist Wang Ching-hung, the independence of Taiwan would have been granted if President Roosevelt had not affirmed to the ROC leader that Formosa (Taiwan) would be returned to Chinese rule once the war would be over.
“If the mission of the ROC Air Force today is to defend Taiwan from Chinese air attacks, why are they honoring those American and Chinese airmen who bombed Taiwan 70 years ago,” questioned Wang Ching-hung in his book – ‘Power Politics and Taiwan: From Cairo Conference to Peace Treaty with Japan’
Other Taiwanese civilians insisted that they have all been fooled by history books and that not the Japanese were the ones who bombed Taiwan on Nov. 25, 1943, but the Americans and Chinese.
Some pro-China students in Taiwan have a different opinion on how things went at the time. In an interview with Want China Times, Professor Lin Ching-yuan of Tamkang University, New Taipei, did not blame the United States air force or the Nationalist government in China for the death of Taiwanese people, but Japan. He said that the American and Chinese did everything they could and fought for the independence of China and that the death of the people they killed during their raids against Japan was caused without the intent of the Allied forces.
Professor Lin thinks that Taiwanese people should be grateful both to the Nationalists and the Chinese Communists for putting an end to the Japanese colonial era and that all the Taiwan people should stand with China to oppose the unjustified occupation of Taiwan by the Japanese, the Want China Times reports.
Lin also encouraged people to recognize the contribution of the U.S. forces to Taiwan and China. He admits that Taiwanese people still have a problem with the United States, due to the fact that the Americans offered their support to the Kuomintang regime during its war against the Chinese Communists. He said that the Civil War could have been avoided if the Americans had refused to assist Chiang.
Professor Lin Ching-yuan insisted that “the best choice for Taiwan is to honor this history as a part of a greater China which includes both the ROC and PRC”.
He also said that to be able to do that, the pro-independence and pro-Japanese elements should be removed from the history books used by the Taiwanese high school students, suggesting that this is a job for the Ministry of Education to do.