China: The Historical Truth About the Taipei Air Raid (Taiwan)

This article aims to clarify misconceptions about the 'Taipei Air Raid' (May 31, 1945). The author finds it absurd that Taiwan independence advocates use the air raid to criticize the KMT as the enemy of the Taiwanese people. The article points out that Taipei's population density was low and buildings were scattered at the time, and the air raid primarily targeted the political center of the Japanese colonial government during the **Japanese Occupation Era**. By comparing bombing maps with Allied forces' actual photos, the author argues that the bomb impacts were concentrated and precise, not a dense bombardment of civilian areas as rumored. Furthermore, due to the existing early warning system and the prior withdrawal of Japanese forces, civilian casualties were far lower than claimed, and those who remained in Taipei were mostly 'High-Grade Imperial Subjects' who could have taken shelter in advance.