Taiwan compatriots fought to liberate nation

Exhibition in Fujian province details cross-Strait resistance against Japanese invaders

FUZHOU, China, Sept. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a report from China Daily:

An exhibition of documents detailing a special task force from Taiwan opened over the weekend in Fuzhou, Fujian province, highlighting the history of Taiwan compatriots resisting Japanese aggression supported by the Communist Party of China.

On display are some 240 archival documents and historical photographs — about 30 of which are being shown for the first time — that detail the courageous deeds of the Taiwan volunteer corps, a group of patriotic compatriots from Taiwan who fought Japanese aggression on the Chinese mainland.

The founder of the force, Li Yu-bang, was born in 1906 in Taiwan, and his family migrated to the island from the Chinese mainland five generations ago.

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) government was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan following a defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, and Li grew up under Japanese colonial rule, witnessing the injustices and oppressions brought by the Japanese.

In 1924, Li planned and carried out an attack on a Japanese police station in Taipei. The act of defiance made him a target, leading to him fleeing to the mainland with help from fellow resistors. He eventually enrolled in the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, where he continued to nurture his revolutionary ideals.

After Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937, Li became convinced that Taiwan's fate was tied to the motherland. "To save Taiwan, we must first save our motherland. For the success of Taiwan's revolution, the victory of the nation's resistance is essential," he said.

It was this vision that led him, with support from the CPC, to establish the Taiwan volunteer corps in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, in 1939. The group started with just over 30 members but quickly grew, attracting Taiwan people living in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. Later, he also formed a youth wing — the Taiwan youth league — to involve younger generations who were good at singing and dancing in the patriotic cause.

The team had grown to more than 380 by 1945 when Japan surrendered, playing an active role along the front lines in Zhejiang and Fujian, and contributing to the resistance in various fields, including publicity and providing medical support and supplies.

As many members were doctors, they founded the first "Taiwan Hospital" in Jinhua, offering free treatment to soldiers, their families and impoverished civilians. Three more hospitals were established in Zhejiang and Fujian, along with mobile medical units that served rural communities and even front-line battlefields.

Their medical expertise proved critical in 1940, when the Japanese army launched germ warfare attacks in Jinhua and Quzhou. The team responded swiftly, implementing quarantine measures, distributing manuals on epidemic prevention, and disinfecting contaminated areas — their efforts saved countless lives.

Fluent in Japanese, some members translated captured military documents, interrogated prisoners, gathered intelligence, and even conducted counter-Japanese imperialism publicity aimed at demoralizing troops.

On Oct 25, 1945, the Chinese government announced that it was resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan. The ceremony to accept Japan's surrender in the Taiwan province of the China war theater of the Allied powers was held in Taipei. It marked Taiwan's official return to China.

Overwhelmed with emotion, General Li told his comrades, "Today, we can finally return to our hometowns with dignity, as patriotic Taiwan compatriots, and reunite with our fathers and brothers."

To commemorate the victory, Li carved the Chinese characters "fu jiang" on a rock at Wulao Peak in Xiamen, Fujian. "Fu" means restoration, and "jiang" means territory, which refers specifically to Taiwan.

The CPC's guiding role

Fan Weidong, the first curator of the Taiwan Volunteer Corps Memorial Hall in Jinhua, Zhejiang, said that this force was "the largest, longest-lasting and most influential team formed by Taiwan compatriots during the war".

"In the great tide of China's resistance against Japanese aggression, Taiwan compatriots were never absent. This is also one of the achievements of our united front against Japan," he said.

Lan Po-chou, a writer from Taiwan and publisher of Renjian Publishing Co, said that after the formation of the united front in 1937, Taiwan compatriots saw hope for Taiwan's return to the motherland and they pinned their hopes on the nation's victory.

More than 50,000 Taiwan people are estimated to have returned to the mainland during the war to join the resistance — some even making their way to Yan'an, the heart of CPC-led revolutionary efforts, Lan said.

Jiang Liping, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League, said at a recent conference in Beijing, "The CPC played an irreplaceable guiding role in the victory of the nation's war against aggression and strongly promoted the movement to recover Taiwan."

As early as May 15, 1937, Mao Zedong told a journalist from the United States that China's goal was to achieve a final victory in the war — a victory that would recover the occupied Chinese territories in Northeast China and to the south of the Shanhai Pass, and secure the liberation of Taiwan.

Jiang said, this vision resonated deeply with Taiwan compatriots, many of whom believed that only through unity with the mainland under the CPC's leadership could Taiwan break free from colonial rule.

Throughout the 50 years of Japanese occupation, more than 650,000 Taiwan compatriots sacrificed their lives resisting their colonizers, he said, which is a vivid demonstration that Taiwan people have always been part of the Chinese nation's struggle for sovereignty.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, condemned the attempts to distort history by the island's Democratic Progressive Party authorities.

"Denying the CPC's central role in the war is a betrayal of the martyrs and the Chinese nation," she said.

The recent inclusion of the "Taiwan Volunteer Corps Archives" in China's national documentary heritage list in June has brought cross-Strait attention to this history. The 625 original records — including telegrams, statistical charts, photographs, newspapers and oral histories — provide irrefutable evidence of the volunteers' activities from 1937 to 1946.

Zhu said, "The original documents strongly prove that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, and they demonstrate the objective fact that people on both sides of the Strait are connected by blood and share a common destiny."

Wang Yanghong, granddaughter of a member of the Taiwan volunteer corps, donated her grandfather's service certificate and family letters to the Fujian archives authority. While visiting the archives exhibition in Fuzhou over the weekend, she surprisingly found a previously unknown document listing names of Taiwan compatriots signing up to join the forces in 1939, including her great-grandfather, grandfather and granduncle.

"This is the first time I've seen such a complete name list," said Wang, who immediately photographed it to share with her family.

SOURCE China Daily