Disparate views of China's performance
Next we asked interviewees their assessment of China's and Japan's performance and conduct in the war. We found that 72.0% of respondents gave a negative assessment of Japan's war record. Their answers centered on the Japanese invasion and atrocities, and on their high-handedness and arrogance. But 22.7% of respondents assessed Japan's performance positively, especially the valor and loyalty of the Japanese army.
Analyzing the content of the replies, in fact the positive and negative replies do not contradict each other. In other words, almost all our interviewees acknowledged that the Japanese army was both "brave and loyal" (towards Japan) and "cruel and ruthless" (towards the countries they invaded). The only difference was in whether they personally tended to like the Japanese for this, or despise them. Quite a number of interviewees replied: "Japan's performance in the war was top-notch, but I still won't give them the slightest praise!" Replies to this question were scarcely affected by interviewees' provincial background or party allegiance.
So what of China's performance in the war? For a victorious country, it can only be described as "just passable": 66.2% of interviewees gave a positive assessment, while 23.7% were critical. But unlike assessments of the Japanese, where people agreed on what that nation's traits were but differed in which they chose to highlight, opinions of China's performance were directly at odds with respect to the same criteria. For instance, those who gave good marks described China's wartime performance as brave, indomitable, sincere and united, whereas those who gave a negative assessment thought the Chinese showed themselves to be cowardly, incompetent and divided. So were the Chinese really cowardly or valiant, united or split? It seems that like the blind men feeling the elephant, the public in Taiwan today are unclear, hesitant and undecided in their impressions.
The seventh question concerned one of the greatest atrocities of the war, the Rape of Nanjing. As many as 85.4% of interviewees said they are still "intensively grieved" by this event. Those who were "not especially grieved," were "not concerned," didn't know or declined to answer totalled 14.6%.
Our next few questions were intended to reveal the sources from which members of the public get their information about the Sino-Japanese war. The results showed that only 2.5% gained their impressions from their own personal experience of fighting in the war. A further 34.2% of interviewees had relatives or friends who fought in the war, while the remaining 63.4% had no one close to them who took part, and were consequently relatively less familiar with this topic. Of this group, more than four-fifths (52.8% of all interviewees) had little opportunity in their day-to-day lives to talk about the war, and this proportion rises as the age of interviewees falls, showing that the younger people are, the less interest they tend to show in this war.
Apart from personal contacts, we asked interviewees what they thought of the descriptions of the Sino-Japanese war in school textbooks and in the mass media. 57.8% and 55.8% respectively of interviewees indicated they basically "believe" them; those who "have some doubts" or "do not believe" them totalled 29.1% for textbooks and 33.2% for the media, suggesting that the public have slightly more faith in textbooks' credibility than in that of the media.
Food for thought
After the intensive media reports accompanying the recent fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war, has the public gained a clearer perception of the eight-year conflict with Japan? The results do not look encouraging: as many as 81.4% of interviewees expressed the view that most Taiwan residents' understanding of the war is "somewhat lacking" (62.3%) or "very inadequate" (19.1%). Only one in ten believed that people here sufficiently understand the war.
How can Chinese not understand the eight-year War of Resistance against the Japanese? Many cited reasons such as "I didn't experience it," "It was too long ago, it's been forgotten," or "I don't have enough information." But some people said bluntly: "It was between the Kuomintang and the Japanese, it had nothing to do with Taiwan," or "I only know about the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, I don't know about their invasion of China." Answers such as these to some extent reflect the detached attitude of the Taiwanese, who 50 years ago were far away from the front lines.
Interestingly, while quite a few older Taiwanese interviewees opined with implied regret that "young people today aren't the slightest bit interested in finding out about those events," some younger respondents took a diametrically opposed view: "We of the younger generation have read our history books, we know what happened. The old generation lived under colonial rule, and the Japanese deceived them about many things. . . ." So who really understands, and who doesn't? What kind of understanding is right? It seems that today, fifty years after the war ended, there are still many question marks.
The question which revealed most about the public's ambivalent attitudes towards the war with Japan was the last one: "Which side in the Sino-Japanese war do you think the people of Taiwan supported in their hearts at the time?" On hearing this question, quite a number of interviewees hesitated for a long time, unable to make up their minds. In the end those who thought the Taiwanese "probably" supported China were the largest group at 41.2%, while 18.6% believed the Taiwanese supported Japan; meanwhile a total of 36.1% thought they were neutral or undecided.
After cross-comparison of valid replies, we found that the proportion of DPP supporters taking the view that the Taiwanese supported China was the smallest (18.6%), and there was a large gap between this group and KMT supporters (46.2%), New Party supporters (40.0%) and those who stated no allegiance (43.4%). Furthermore, the younger the age band interviewees belonged to, the larger the proportion believing that Taiwanese of the time probably supported China: of those born before 1941, 35.5% chose "supported Japan"; of those born since 1966, only 10.6% chose this answer. Among those of Taiwanese descent, this disparity grows to 53.8% against 1l.3%. How there could be such a difference of view between two generations of the same section of the community is a question which provides much food for thought.
[Picture Caption]
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In recent years Taiwanese who were forced to go to war as soldiers in the Japanese army have broken their long silence, and taken their aging bodies onto the streets to demand overdue justice from the Japanese government. (photo by Hsing Ting-wei)
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The "Sabre Song" and "Exile Trilogy" were typical songs of the early post war years in military dependents' villages. But as memories of the war fade, what impressions do the villages' second generation have of Japan? (photo by Pu Hua-chih)
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Impressions of the War.What the People Say
We usually have some impression or other of various countries around the world. What kind of country do you feel our neighbor Japan is?
This year is the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, and of the end of the Sino-Japanese War. Do you feel that the Sino-Japanese War has any special significance for you?
How do you assess Japan's performance and conduct in the Sino-Japanese War?
How do you assess China's performance and conduct in the Sino-Japanese War?
What is your opinion of the descriptions of the Sino-Japanese War in today's school textbooks?
What is your opinion of the reports about the Sino-Japanese War in today's newspapers, in broadcasting and on the three main TV stations?
Do you think most people in Taiwan today have sufficient understanding of the Sino-Japanese War?
Which side in the Sino-Japanese War do you think most Taiwanese supported in their hearts at the time?
Map and pie charts by Lee Su-ling