Comments on: Taiwan loses historical site http://galaxycow.com/blogs/vermyndax/2007/04/07/taiwan-loses-historical-site/ Don't let serenity fool you. Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:58:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Vermyndax http://galaxycow.com/blogs/vermyndax/2007/04/07/taiwan-loses-historical-site/#comment-36 Vermyndax Sun, 08 Apr 2007 03:06:15 +0000 http://galaxycow.com/blogs/vermyndax/?p=92#comment-36 I just don't agree that repudiation of its authoritarian past should include the destruction of historical sites, nor the attempt to ignore that it happened. If you ignore the past, you're certainly doomed to repeat it. I just don’t agree that repudiation of its authoritarian past should include the destruction of historical sites, nor the attempt to ignore that it happened. If you ignore the past, you’re certainly doomed to repeat it.

]]> By: dadofping http://galaxycow.com/blogs/vermyndax/2007/04/07/taiwan-loses-historical-site/#comment-35 dadofping Sun, 08 Apr 2007 02:12:54 +0000 http://galaxycow.com/blogs/vermyndax/?p=92#comment-35 Though I hold little respect for its former occupant I mourn with you the loss of a historical site that I have not yet visited and, if it was arson, distance myself and my in-laws from those who would carry out such an act in a free society. So, Chaing Kai Shek is "pretty much the founder of the Taiwan we have today" is he? As I recall from reading history, Taiwan/Formosa existed before Chaing came there in 1945 and to which he escape in 1949, being chased off the mainland by the Communist (whom, in spite of Chaing sitting on hordes of weapons that the US gave him to fight the Japanese, he could not defeat). Chiang had no concern about Taiwan except for how he could use it to take back China. He and the KMT exploited Taiwan and its native people in all ways possible. He and his Nationalists practically destroyed the islands economy over the 18 month period following the end of WWII. He punished the native Formosans for being too Japanese (calling them a degraded people). He led his soldiers in the ethnic cleanings of 27,000 of the best and brightest of the Formosans/Taiwanese in Feb-Mar 1947. He and his son presided over the military dictatorship that was Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, imprisoning or killing those who dared challenge the KMT’s one party iron grip on power and infatuation with taking back China (claiming with little or no grounds that the dissidents were communists). Green Island is apply named so because it housed thousands of dissidents who were there precisely because they had the same philosophy of government that the "pan-Green" DPP has today, an independent and democratic Taiwan. So yes, Chaing Kai Shek is "pretty much the founder of the Taiwan we have today” in the same way that Mao is pretty much the founder of the China we have today—except that fortunately Taiwan has seen much democratic and societal reform (including the recent name rectification and de-Chaingization) since the ending of Marshall Law (and White Terror) period in 1987, while China is still waiting for its 1987 type event and resulting reforms. So I missed seeing Chaing’s summer cottage before it burned. That is a pity. But more pitiful is the thought that it took so very long for Taiwan to recognize that repudiation of its authoritarian past was necessary for the country to move further toward the goal of a free, democracy, and independent nation. Though I hold little respect for its former occupant I mourn with you the loss of a historical site that I have not yet visited and, if it was arson, distance myself and my in-laws from those who would carry out such an act in a free society.

So, Chaing Kai Shek is “pretty much the founder of the Taiwan we have today” is he?

As I recall from reading history, Taiwan/Formosa existed before Chaing came there in 1945 and to which he escape in 1949, being chased off the mainland by the Communist (whom, in spite of Chaing sitting on hordes of weapons that the US gave him to fight the Japanese, he could not defeat).

Chiang had no concern about Taiwan except for how he could use it to take back China. He and the KMT exploited Taiwan and its native people in all ways possible. He and his Nationalists practically destroyed the islands economy over the 18 month period following the end of WWII. He punished the native Formosans for being too Japanese (calling them a degraded people). He led his soldiers in the ethnic cleanings of 27,000 of the best and brightest of the Formosans/Taiwanese in Feb-Mar 1947. He and his son presided over the military dictatorship that was Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, imprisoning or killing those who dared challenge the KMT’s one party iron grip on power and infatuation with taking back China (claiming with little or no grounds that the dissidents were communists). Green Island is apply named so because it housed thousands of dissidents who were there precisely because they had the same philosophy of government that the “pan-Green” DPP has today, an independent and democratic Taiwan.

So yes, Chaing Kai Shek is “pretty much the founder of the Taiwan we have today” in the same way that Mao is pretty much the founder of the China we have today—except that fortunately Taiwan has seen much democratic and societal reform (including the recent name rectification and de-Chaingization) since the ending of Marshall Law (and White Terror) period in 1987, while China is still waiting for its 1987 type event and resulting reforms.

So I missed seeing Chaing’s summer cottage before it burned. That is a pity. But more pitiful is the thought that it took so very long for Taiwan to recognize that repudiation of its authoritarian past was necessary for the country to move further toward the goal of a free, democracy, and independent nation.

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