| Part ofWorld War II | |||||||||
 Surrender ceremony in Taipei | |||||||||
| Native name | 臺灣光復 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 25 October 1945 | ||||||||
| Outcome | Taiwan came under control of the Republic of China | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 臺灣光復 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 台湾光复 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Japanese name | |||||||||
| Kanji | 台湾光復 | ||||||||
| Hiragana | たいわんこうふく | ||||||||
On 25 October 1945,Japan handed overTaiwan andPenghu to theRepublic of China, as a result ofWorld War II. This marked the end ofJapanese rule and the beginning ofpost-war era of Taiwan. This event was referred to by the Republic of China as theretrocession of Taiwan (臺灣光復).[1][2][3][4] The Republic of China government viewed this as the restoration of Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan, following its cession to Japan in 1895 after theQing dynasty's defeat in theFirst Sino-Japanese War. Therefore, the event was named "retrocession",[2] a notion that has been controversial since thedemocratisation of Taiwan in the 1990s. The date of the handover is annually celebrated as theRetrocession Day, which was apublic holiday in Taiwan from 1946 to 2000, and again from 2025. The day has also been marked as a memorial day inmainland China since 2025.
On 15 August 1945, Japan announcedits surrender following its defeat inWorld War II. On 2 September,Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, issuedGeneral Order No. 1, instructing Japanese forces in various locations to surrender to the Allies. The order specified that Japanese troops in Taiwan were to surrender to the Chinese leaderChiang Kai-shek. Chiang delegatedHe Yingqin as his plenipotentiary for the surrender process, who further appointedChen Yi to oversee the surrender in Taiwan. TheGovernor-General of Taiwan and Commander of the Japanese10th Area Army,Rikichi Andō, on behalf of Japan, surrendered to Chen Yi at theTaipei Public Hall on 25 October, signing the documents to formalise the transfer.[5][6]
TheQing dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 under theTreaty of Shimonoseki following its defeat in theFirst Sino-Japanese War. The1911 Revolution brought about the fall of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of theRepublic of China.[7]
Japanese aggression escalated into full-scale conflict after theMarco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, drawing the Republic of China into theSecond Sino-Japanese War. Following theattack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Republic of China officially joined theAllies in World War II.[8] The Republic of China sought Allied agreement for Japan to relinquish Taiwan and return its sovereignty to China after the war. This intention was included in theCairo Declaration and reiterated in thePotsdam Proclamation, which called for the fulfilment of these terms.[9][7]
It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of thefirst World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such asManchuria,Formosa, andThe Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China.
— 1943 Cairo Declaration
The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands ofHonshu,Hokkaido,Kyushu,Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.
— 1945 Potsdam Declaration
On 17 April 1944, theChinese Nationalist government inChongqing, through the Kuomintang's Central Design Bureau, established the Taiwan Investigation Committee. Chen Yi, who had participated in the40th Anniversary Commemorative Taiwan Expo, was appointed as the head. Initially, no Taiwanese members were part of the committee, but in September, several Taiwanese members were added.[10] In May 1944, the Central Design Bureau divided the Chinese territory into three zones, the rear zone, the recovered zone, and the retroceded zone, with Taiwan and Manchuria being the retroceded zone.[11][12]
With the end of the war, theNationalist government debated two plans for Taiwan: a normal Chinese province or a special administration area with additional military authorities. Chiang Kai-shek, upon the suggestion of Chen Yi, turned Taiwan into a Chinese province, yet he set up the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office, which had extensive political and military power. This design was criticized by Taiwanese and was called the New Governor-General Office.[13]
On 15 October 1945, theNational Revolutionary Army of China arrived in Taiwan, landing atKeelung, where they were greeted warmly by the local Taiwanese population.[14] Businesspeople took out advertisements in local newspapers to celebrate the takeover, and streets were filled with celebrations marked by firecrackers and Chinese lanterns. Although there were limited incidents of Taiwanese retribution against the Japanese, the general situation remained calm and orderly, with the Taiwanese anticipating the Chinese administration's arrival.[15]
On 25 October 1945, the Japanese surrender ceremony in Taiwan took place at 10 a.m.Western Standard Time at theTaipei Public Hall. The surrendering party was the Japanese Empire's 10th Area Army, represented by Governor-General of Taiwan and 10th Area Army Commander GeneralRikichi Andō. Chen Yi represented the Allied Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek to accept the surrender, which was witnessed by representatives of Nationalist government, Taiwanese people, Japanese forces, and American forces.[16][17]
After the surrender ceremony, Chen Yi delivered a radio speech proclaiming that Taiwan and the Penghu Islands had rejoined China, marking Taiwan's retrocession.[2] George H. Kerr, who was invited to proofread the English translation of Chen Yi's Chinese speech, noted that it omitted any mention of the role played by the United States.[18] On the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office officially began operations, with its headquarters located at the former Taipei City Hall.[19]
From November, theTaiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office and theTaiwan Garrison Command jointly established the Taiwan Provincial Receiving Committee, tasked with taking over military and administrative functions, as well as Japanese assets in Taiwan. In January 1946, the Handling Committee was set up under the Receiving Committee, with branches in 17 counties and cities to oversee the management of Japanese assets.[19] By July, additional bodies, namely the Property Auction Committee and the Property Liquidation Committee, were established to handle the valuation, auction, and settlement of debts and claims related to the properties and financial institutions.[20]
Shortly after the takeover, the Taiwanese people witnessed a corrupt and undisciplined Chinese administration that seized Taiwan's resources to support thecivil war on the mainland.[21][22][23]: 111 [24]: 69 [25][26] The government's poor economic management led tohyperinflation, reduced production,[27][28][13] widespread unemployment and hunger,[29] and a rise in violent crime.[30] Taiwanese citizens faced discrimination by mainland military and government officials,[31] which fueled growing resentment. These factors ultimately contributed to the eruption of the28 February incident.[32] Many intellectuals who had supported the end of Japanese rule and were hopeful for Chinese governance, includingLin Hsien-tang, were either killed or forced to flee by the government.[33]
The Nationalist government was criticised for controlling Taiwan as "conquerors", displaying an attitude of "superiority" and exercising authoritarian power.[34] It implemented a 40-year-long period ofWhite Terror, during which Taiwanese people, especiallyBenshengren, were repressed, and democracy, human rights, and freedoms were stifled. Therefore, a good number of Taiwanese scholars believed that there was no retrocession of Taiwan, but the island was once again conquered by a foreign government.[35][36][37][38][39]
The official position of both thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) and theRepublic of China (ROC) is that Taiwan and Penghu were returned to the Republic of China according to the terms of the 1945 Japanese Instrument of Surrender, which stipulated Japan's compliance with the terms of thePotsdam Declaration. The Potsdam Declaration in turn included the terms of the Cairo Declaration, which required Japan to return all conquered territories to China, including Taiwan and thePescadores.[40]
The ROC clarified its understanding of the Cairo Declaration in 2014 as a legally binding instrument.[41] Among other things, the clarification listed later treaties and documents that "reaffirmed" aspects of the Cairo Declaration as legally binding, including the Potsdam Proclamation, theJapanese Instrument of Surrender, theTreaty of San Francisco, and theTreaty of Taipei:
The post-war status and jurisdiction over Taiwan and its appertaining islands, including Penghu, was resolved through a series of legal instruments—the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan of 1952. The implementation of the legal obligation to return Taiwan and its appertaining islands (including theDiaoyutai Islands) to the ROC was first stipulated in the Cairo Declaration, and later reaffirmed in the Potsdam Proclamation, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan. The Cairo Declaration is therefore a legally binding instrument with treaty status.
In November 1950, theUnited States Department of State announced that no formal act restoring sovereignty over Formosa and thePescadores to China had yet occurred;[42] British officials reiterated this viewpoint in 1955, saying that "The Chinese Nationalists began a military occupation of Formosa and the Pescadores in 1945. However, these areas were under Japanese sovereigntyuntil 1952" and that
[Cairo Declaration] was couched in the form of a statement of intention, and as it was merely a statement of intention, it is merely binding in so far as it states the intent at that time, and therefore it cannot by itself transfer sovereignty.[43]
In March 1961, in a meeting of theHouse of Councillors of Japan, a councillor of theJapanese Communist Party brought up the notion that Taiwan had been returned to China according to the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Proclamation, and Japanese Instrument of Surrender. The then-Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs responded that:
It was specified in Potsdam Proclamation that the articles in Cairo Declaration shall be carried out, and in accordance with Japanese Instrument of Surrender we announced that we would comply with Potsdam Proclamation. However, the so-called Japanese Instrument of Surrender possesses the nature ofarmistice and does not possess the nature of territorial disposition.[44]
In April 1971, theU.S. Department of State spokesman stated in a press release that the US government regarded the status of Taiwan as unsettled, and that Cairo Declaration was a statement of purpose of theAllies and was never formally implemented or executed.[45]
As late as December 2014, the US government still considered Taiwan's status an unsettled issue.[46]
The United States has its own "one China" policy (vs. the PRC's "one China" principle) and position on Taiwan's status. Not recognizing the PRC's claim over Taiwan nor Taiwan as a sovereign state, U.S. policy has considered Taiwan's status as unsettled.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[Quoting from a declassified CIA report on Taiwan written in March 1949] From the legal standpoint, Taiwan is not part of the Republic of China. Pending a Japanese peace treaty, the island remains occupied territory in which the US has proprietary interests.
The above indicated commanders are the only representatives of the Allied Powers empowered to accept surrenders and all surrenders of Japanese Forces shall be made only to them or to their representatives.
After occupying Taiwan in 1945 as a result of Japan's surrender, the Nationalists were defeated on the mainland in 1949, abandoning it to retreat to Taiwan. In that year the PRC was established.
