This article presents a strong 'anti-victimhood narrative' perspective on the US bombing of Kaohsiung in late WWII. We question Taiwanese people's fundraising for a board game called 'Kaohsiung Great Air Raid,' arguing it represents sympathy for defeated Japanese colonizers, and contend that the air raids were justified military strikes against Japanese military installations, with casualties being primarily Japanese soldiers or collaborating imperial subjects.
This article aims to clarify misconceptions about the 'Taipei Air Raid' (May 31, 1945). The author argues that it is absurd for Taiwan independence advocates to use the air raid to criticize the KMT as the enemy of the Taiwanese people. The piece points out that Taipei's population density was low and buildings were scattered at the time, and the raid primarily targeted the political center of the Japanese colonial government. By comparing bombing maps with actual Allied aerial photos, the author claims the hits were concentrated and precise, not a dense carpet-bombing of civilian areas. Furthermore, since an early warning system existed and the Japanese military had already fled, civilian casualties were far lower than claimed; those remaining in Taipei were mostly 'elite Japanese subjects' who could have taken cover in advance.