TAIWAN: With victorious songs sung, flowers presented and a parade marching through Taipei’s main street, people of Taiwan commemorated the 75th anniversary of the island’s recovery from Japanese occupation.
The day of Oct. 25, 1945 marked the end of the 50-year Japanese occupation in Taiwan, while in the rest part of China, a prolonged 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 forces.
In front of the same hall where Japan surrendered 75 years ago in Taipei, about 400 people gathered Sunday morning to pay their tribute to the monument marking the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and Taiwan’s recovery from Japanese occupation.
They sang the songs celebrating the end of Japanese occupation in Taiwan and honoring the fighters against Japan’s invasion, presenting flowers to the monument.
Huang Tai-feng took the one-hour bus from her home in Taoyuan county to attend the event in the downtown of Taipei.
“The day of Oct. 25 used to be a public holiday but the authority canceled it years ago. Now even schools do not teach this part of history.
My grandsons would not be aware of this historic day if we did not talk about it at home,” said Huang, the grandmother of two boys, one in the elementary school and the other in the junior middle school.
“It is important for us to have a complete understanding of our own history and pass the knowledge to our children,” she said.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
