were responsible for policing all cases of sea robbery both on the island and in Chinese waters.
Japan provided Formosa to the Chinese and had to leave the island by December 20, 1874.
One day after the departure of the Japanese expedition, the camp was reduced to ashes, the Chinese burning everything they had bought, considering it to be humiliating to use.
In 1875, Taipei became the capital of northern Taiwan. In 1886 Taiwan was singled out as a separate province of China. The defeat in the war with the Japanese forced the Qing government to cede Taiwan to Japan in 1895.
Under the terms of the Shimonoseki Peace Treaty, Taiwan came under the control of the Japanese administration. Having settled on the island, the Japanese first began to study the local tribes.
They call these tribes "takasago" (as the Japanese read "gaoshan"). The Japanese conduct scientific research and classifications and took control of the island.
Following the outbreak of World War II, some villages were converted into paramilitary camps by the Japanese.
Thus, they prepared the local population for service in the Japanese army. Two raid companies were formed from the Aborigines under the command of Japanese commanders, who took part in the battles in the Pacific Ocean, New Guinea, and the Philippines.
They also took part in raids on the American airfield at Browen. During this raid, a Taiwanese suicide squad named "Kaoru Group" was supposed to blow up American planes. The task was only partially completed.
Generally, these Takasago units were distinguished by their good training and excellent fighting qualities.
Local patriots tried to organize Taiwan, as an independent state, “the Republic of Taiwan ". However, this attempt failed. The new Qing government was defeated in the war with the Japanese and ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895.
The intention of the Chinese to keep Taiwan for themselves by establishing the independent state " the Republic of Taiwan " was quickly suppressed by the Japanese. Taiwan, aka Formosa, was seized by the Japanese. For some time they were heroically resisted by both the Chinese and the aborigines, but modern firearms did their job. Rumour has it that the Japanese made an action movie on this event. Taiwan fit well with the Japanese concept of accretion by islands.
They tried to do everything to make the locals feel like subjects of the Empire of the Rising Sun. Some even believed in this, for example, Teruo Nakamura, one of those who had been hiding out in the jungle for many years after the war.
When he was discovered and captured, it turned out that nobody knew what to do with him. The Japanese patriot spoke neither Japanese nor Chinese. Eventually, he was granted a Japanese pension but was sent to Taiwan to live out his days.
From 1895 to 1945, there was a special period in the life of Taiwan.
At this time, the island was part of the Japanese Empire and was divided into several prefectures: Taihoku, Shinchiku, Tainan, Takao, Taichu, Hoko, Taito, Tarenko.
Where does the name of Taiwan come from?
As for the name itself of the island of Taiwan, there are 2 versions of the origin of the word. Near the first Dutch settlement of Zealand (now – Anping District, Tainan City) there was a settlement of the Siraiya tribe. In their language, this place was called Tayoan. Later, it became more convenient for the Chinese colonists to call the island in their own way – "Da yuan", which means "Big circleTaioan and Dayuan, as well as some other variants were recorded. Gradually, the name of the most developed area had been transferred to the entire island. And since in the area that the Dutch liked so much, there was a bay, convenient for entry of ships and featuring a sandbank, which protected them from the sea waves in the strait, we can trace the borrowing.
Until the end of the 17th century, the island was still better known as "Formosa" to many Europeans. On western maps, it appears as Formosa and until the first half of the 20th century, it often appears under both names.
In historical documents, the name Formosa is used to define Taiwan until the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945.
The Austronesian Aborigines of the island are sometimes still called "Formosians". And old sailors always called the island Formosa. They also used this name for the strait that separates the mainland and the island.
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
In 1937, Japan launched a large-scale operation against China and Chiang Kai-shek was appointed Generalissimo of the Republic of China in August of the same year. Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek later signed a mutual non-aggression agreement. The USSR then became the only state that provided the Republic of China with very significant military and financial assistance.
In 1938, the largest battle of the Sino-Japanese War took place near the city of Wuhan in central China. The Chinese army numbering over a million held back the Japanese troops for four months. The mobile and well-armed Japanese army used hundreds of gas attacks and eventually forced the Chinese to leave Wuhan. The Japanese lost over 100,000 soldiers in the battle. The damage was so significant that it stopped their advance inland for years.
On 23 February 1938, a daring raid of Soviet bombers took place on the Japanese airbase on the island of Taiwan, considered to be outside the zone of action of the enemy air force. On this day, after a 7-hour flight, twenty-eight bombers under the command of pilot Fyodor Polynin bombed the airfield, destroying 40 Japanese aircraft, hangars and a long-term fuel supply. The raid was so unexpected that none of the Japanese fighters even had time to take off. Soviet pilots on the TB-3 bombers were actively fighting against the Japanese invaders. Enraged by the bombing of their airbase in Taiwan, the Japanese decided to take revenge, and on 29 April 1938, just on the birthday of their emperor, attempted to raid the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The raid involved 18 G3M2s bombers protected by 27 Mitsubishi A5Ms fighters, a fierce battle taking place in the sky between Japanese, Soviet and Chinese pilots. Nineteen I-15 and forty-five I-16 Soviet-made fighters shot down ten Japanese bombers and eleven fighters within half an hour, losing twelve of their aircraft.
Within a month of this battle, the Japanese air force stopped flights in the region.
With the support of Soviet military units, the Kuomintang regiments sought to liberate the island from the Japanese. The regiment commander, 27-year-old Ma Chihan, led his troops in the mountains of the southern part of the island. The regiment’s mission was to detain and, if possible, destroy the enemy troops advancing eastward. A Japanese detachment of 2,000 soldiers encircled the men led by Ma Chihan. Ma Chihan positioned his troops up on a hill in an advantageous position and fought off repeated enemy attacks for two days. Then Ma Chihan rallied his troops and overthrew the Japanese in hand-to-hand combat. The Japanese retreated with losses. Tse-yun, at the head of his troops, repulsed the Japanese offensive in the central part of the island. Despite heavy artillery fire, the wounded commander himself led his battalion into a counterattack.
Xin Tse-yun perished, but the offensive was repulsed.The grenade thrower Li Fusheng can deservedly be called the "Hero of the Island's Defence".
This young soldier, a former peasant, became a tank-eliminating specialist. With several grenades suspended on him, he fearlessly rushed towards the Japanese tank and threw a bundle of grenades under its tracks.
During the last Japanese offensive in the southern part of the island, Li Fusheng was wounded six times.
