Taiwanese Imperial Japan Serviceman
Starting in July 1937, Taiwanese began to play a role on the battlefield, initially as civilian interpreters, transporters, laborers, and other noncombatant positions.
[8] Teng Sheng, who was 22 years old when he was mobilized in 1943, said he could not refuse even though he did not want to go because his entire education and training had taught him his body was meant to serve the country and emperor.
[9] Others, such as Xie Yong, were in vocational school at the time and their Japanese military instructor told them that the "nation and emperor needed us.
Lin Xinglin was recruited into the army while living in Japan but was given a civilian position later once they found out he was not Japanese.
One Liu Chengqing who enrolled in 1944 as a civilian employee said in an August 1995 interview that he felt empowered by the "Yamato Spirit.
Lu Qinglin joined the Japanese Navy in May 1945 but was demoted to a civilian employee once they found out he was Taiwanese.
One Zhou Yichun recalled surrender leaflets dropped by U.S. planes stating that Taiwan would return to China and Korea was going to be independent.
He said, "I had striven hard to be a loyal subject of the emperor, and today I discovered something that I remembered my grandfather telling me—that I was a Chinese.
According to interviewed veterans, those who served were given extra food and other rationed articles for their families, and were less likely to be discriminated against by the Japanese government.
[17] Some veterans later joined the communist-led 27 Brigade during the February 28 uprising against the Nationalist government that resulted in further oppression during the White Terror.
"[19] In 1972, a group of Taiwanese ex-Japanese soldiers in Taiwan failed to have their organization registered for claiming reparations from Japan.
Only after a petition in 1987 was a decision made to offer 2 million yen to former Taiwanese soldiers who had suffered severe injury in battle and to the families of those who died.
The 2 million yen per claim, a minute fraction of that paid to Japanese soldiers, amounted to very little of the unpaid military salary as a result of inflation according to the organization's calculations.
[21]Former President Lee Teng-hui of the Republic of China briefly served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army in the final months of World War II.
His brother, Lee Teng-chin, was killed in action in the Philippines while serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Battle of Manila and his remains were never recovered.
