Taiwan says remembering end of WWII won’t hurt ties with Japan

TAIPEI — President Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday that he does not think Taiwan’s plan to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II will undermine the island’s relationship with Japan.

“I don’t think (the commemorative activities) will hurt the relationship (between Japan and Taiwan),” he told Japanese journalists during a meeting at the Presidential Office.

Taiwan will hold a series of events from July 7 to Oct 25 to mark both the war’s end in 1945 and the island’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

July 7 is the anniversary of the 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident, widely regarded as the start of the Chinese-Japanese war, while Oct 25 is Taiwan’s Retrocession Day.

China has also planned a series of commemorative events in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. Beijing’s commemorations, likely to be held in September, will include a military parade in which it will invite other world leaders to attend.

In Taiwan, among the planned commemorative events is a military display at a military base in Hsinchu County, central Taiwan, which would be inspected by Mr Ma, who serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Mr Ma said the commemorative events would help the public “better understand the atrocity of war, learn a lesson from history and jointly promote regional peace and prosperity”.

China was ruled by the Kuomintang government when Japan was defeated in World War II, in what the Chinese call “victory in the war of resistance against Japanese aggression”.

As a “major player and victim” of the war, Mr Ma said it is only natural for the government in Taiwan to hold events to mark the special occasion.

Mr Ma said he noticed the Japanese government has proposed plans to examine its role in World War II, which he said would help other countries better understand Tokyo’s attitude on the issue and help advance peace in the region.

“Only by reflecting on the mistakes we made in the past can we free ourselves from the dark shadow of war and face the future,” Mr Ma said.

Despite the lack of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Japan, Mr Ma said he has been making efforts to advance bilateral relations since he was first elected in 2008.

Ties between Japan and China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province awaiting reunification with the mainland, have been strained in past two years over what Beijing views as Tokyo’s reluctance to properly atone for its wartime past as well as a dispute over a group of tiny East China Sea islets.

Meanwhile, Mr Ma said that he has never ruled out a summit meeting with Beijing before his second term of office ends in May next year, adding that it will be “normal” for leaders of two sides of the Taiwan Strait to meet.

He added that if he had a chance to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, he would like to discuss peace and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan tried to arrange a meeting between Mr Ma and Mr Xi on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last year, but the initiative was quickly turned down by Beijing. KYODO NEWS