ABSTRACT
The Japanese surrender in December 1945 opened a new chapter in Taiwan’s history. As Japan’s colonial administrators, soldiers and civilians prepared for their departure, the island’s residents prepared for the arrival of the Nationalist Chinese government. The Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), established the Republic of China in 1912 after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Throughout the ensuing decades, the KMT fought to unify China’s vast territory under its control, struggling first against warlords, then against the Japanese and finally against the Chinese Communist Party. Although technically a multi-party democracy, the ROC government early on fell under the domination of the KMT
Despite military setbacks, corruption, economic crisis and authoritarian inclinations, the KMT regime gained recognition as China’s legitimate government. It joined the Allied forces in World War II, and at the Cairo and Potsdam Conferences Allied leaders agreed that Taiwan would become part of the ROC at the end of the war. According to contemporaneous reports, Taiwanese eagerly awaited retrocession, which they saw as the restoration of their ancestral connection to mainland China. In Taipei, some 300,000 residents turned out to greet the arriving soldiers.1
