💣 “Kaohsiung Great Air Raid” Board Game? Victors Filled with Defeat, The Absurd Historical Narrative
In $1944$, the height of the Second World War (World War II, WWII) Pacific Theater, a bloody and fierce period when armies clashed relentlessly, a group of Japanese youth in their twenties, after training in the Japanese homeland, were deployed by the Japanese military to the Tsoying base in Taiwan, preparing to launch kamikaze suicide attacks against the Allied naval fleets.
The Allies—the coalition of China (Republic of China) and the United States and other nations—in order to end this bloody war started by Japan, adopted island-hopping tactics in late WWII, successively recovering island chains invaded by the Japanese military, reducing potential casualties in the final assault on the Japanese mainland.
The Allies ultimately chose to directly attack control of Philippine and Okinawan islands, and conducted air raids by bombing several important military facilities controlled by the Japanese military in Taiwan, including locations in Taipei and Kaohsiung.
In the skies above Kaohsiung, two military bombing operations were launched:
- October 12, $1944$: The US Air Force dispatched $130$ B-$29$ bombers that dropped $859.75$ tons of bombs on Okayama Airfield and Navy $61$ Aviation Factory over 6 days.
- January 15, $1945$: USS Ticonderoga carrier aircraft attacked Tsoying Harbor in the morning, sinking the Kazagumo and USS Matsu.
Yet less than seventy years after the defeat of the “evil” Axis powers and Japan, Taiwan has already seen a group of people intending to fundraise and develop a board game called “Kaohsiung Great Air Raid,” describing the oppression and suppression that this piece of land in Kaohsiung suffered, accusing America of dispatching fighters to cause Kaohsiung serious suffering and hardship?
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From my perspective, the historical truth of this “Kaohsiung Great Air Raid” that some people talk about is simply that the bombed Japanese colonizers lost the war, ultimately tucking their tails and fleeing back to Japan.
When WWII ended and Japan surrendered, Emperor Showa broadcast the “Rescript Ending the War” via recorded radio to all Japanese people on August 15th. When Japanese people heard of Japan’s defeat, they were extremely shocked, weeping profusely. This is embarrassing Japanese history that Japanese people have been unwilling to recall even now, only daring to say how terrifying war is, but never once reflecting on who actually started this war.
But what does all this have to do with the people of Taiwan, Republic of China? As victors yet filled with defeat mentality, I deeply suspect the background of these Democratic Progressive Party operatives is not pure.
The Kaohsiung Great Air Raid was simply a counterattack during wartime across Asia, simply happening to occur in Kaohsiung under Japanese military control at that time, and moreover involved just 2 bombing operations targeting military institutions.
Why do some people in Taiwan insist on sinking deep into Taiwan chauvinism, unlimitedly exaggerating how pitiable Kaohsiung is??
In fact, what’s called the “Kaohsiung Great Air Raid” should be properly renamed “Kaohsiung Airfield Bombing,” and the main targets were Japanese soldiers and imperial subjects collaborating with Japanese militarism who brutally killed Chinese civilians and Southeast Asian peoples. Being blown to high heaven was simply… exactly… right!! !
As for some Japanese people who hid their identities and changed names, who didn’t flee back to Japan with the others but chose to maintain their long-accumulated, plundered interests in Taiwan, they probably harbored resentment ever since.
I know one friend myself who deeply despises Chinese culture, a Taiwan independence advocate (when not discussing politics also a lukewarm homebody), whose family already occupied an entire mountain range in the south-central region during the Japanese occupation era, and is now running an amusement park making big money. In fact, the still-living older generation of their family is Japanese people who changed names and identities, secretly bribing township government personnel to alter household registration records, Japanese people, who kept it hidden until recent years when social atmosphere began changing before daring to tell their descendants about their own identity.