Veterans
When asked the reason for serving, many veterans stated that their reason for joining up was to receive better treatment. Veteran Chien Chuan-chih recounted his experiences: "While Japanese were rationed white sugar, Taiwanese were only given brown sugar; Japanese could have pork, and Taiwanese could only have a limited amount of lower grade meat. Only by joining the service can a Taiwanese be free of discrimination, and able to enjoy the same treatment as the Japanese. Therefore, many Taiwanese volunteered for the service."
Chiu Chin-chun, a pilot for the Imperial Japanese Army, stated in one of his interviews, "I was assigned to the Seventh Air Fleet, which was based in Nagoya. When I reported to my unit, the commander told the lieutenant commander 'Chiu is a Taiwanese, but do not treat him any different from others. We are all the Emperor's soldiers.'" He also claimed that because he served for Imperial Japan, he was discriminated against by the Chinese authority that later ruled Taiwan. "The Chinese soldiers criticized me whenever they saw me, and the police did the same... after the 228 Incident, some people came (to my work place) and said I served for Japan, that I betrayed the country (China)..."
Former President Lee Teng-hui of the Republic of China briefly served in the Imperial Japanese armed forces shortly before the end of World War Two. His brother, Lee Teng-chin, was killed in action in the Philippines while serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy. His remains were never recovered. Furthermore, Lee Teng-chin and at least 26,000 ethnic Taiwanese Imperial Japan servicemen, who were killed or presumed killed in action, were enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine.
Although not considered Taiwanese by ethnicity, Takasago Volunteers were sometimes considered to be Taiwanese Imperial Japan Servicemen, and statistics sometimes show the two groups as one. The Takasago Volunteers unit was composed of Taiwanese aboriginal volunteers, and Taiwanese people with Han Chinese background.
Read more about this topic: Taiwanese Imperial Japan Serviceman
Famous quotes containing the word veterans:
“[Veterans] feel disappointed, not about the 1914-1918 war but about this war. They liked that war, it was a nice war, a real war a regular war, a commenced war and an ended war. It was a war, and veterans like a war to be a war. They do.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“My gentleman gives the law where he is; he will outpray saints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the field, and outshine all courtesy in the hall. He is good company for pirates, and good with academicians; so that it is useless to fortify yourself against him; he has the private entrance to all minds, and I could as easily exclude myself, as him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“To the cry of “follow Mormons and prairie dogs and find good land,” Civil War veterans flocked into Nebraska, joining a vast stampede of unemployed workers, tenant farmers, and European immigrants.”
—For the State of Nebraska, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)