Taiwan President Lai Ching-te posted on the 80th anniversary of Japan’s announcement of surrender in World War II, promoting unity as a key to victory and declaring that aggression leads to defeat.
On June 15, Lai Ching-te wrote on Facebook: “World War II was a great catastrophe in history—merely because a few dictators’ personal ambitions for hegemony, extreme ideologies, and military expansion, countless nations across several continents were drawn into merciless warfare.”
He believes that the most valuable lesson from World War II is that unity ensures victory and aggression only brings defeat. Regardless of any excuse or reason, no regime has the right to invade or deprive people on another land of their freedom and happiness. “Countries that cherish freedom and treasure peace must stand together, with unassailable determination and strength, to frustrate any ambitions for expansion or aggression.”
Lai Ching-te continued, saying that the full-scale outbreak of World War II, apart from aggressors acting willfully, also resulted from a lack of vigilance toward aggressive ambitions—even wishful thinking that certain compromises could bring about peace—letting the war instigators seize the opportunity, with the taste for aggression becoming addictive, which allowed the war to spiral out of control.
He stated that 80 years later, on this day marking the end of the war, “when we view freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity as naturally as breathing, we should reflect more deeply on this painful chapter in history and draw lessons from it.”
Lai Ching-te’s post mentions the “end of the war,” but does not mention the “War of Resistance Against Japan.”
In response, former KMT chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu posted on Facebook, saying that without the victory in the War of Resistance, there would have been no recovery of Taiwan, asking: “Is Lai Ching-te taking on the mindset of a Japanese remnant to serve as president of the Republic of China?” Hung criticized that in key moments, Lai only referenced the victory far away in the European war, but deliberately avoided mentioning the victory in the War of Resistance—what does this mean? She said that without the eight years of resistance against Japan, there would be no Taiwan Restoration, and no basis for talking about democracy and freedom here today. “This is not a detail of history, but the very root of our national identity.”
Hung Hsiu-chu sternly criticized: “Lai Ching-te, are you fit to be president of the Republic of China?!”