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Taiwan belongs to ROC: Ma
PAST AND PRESENT:After elaborating on the ROC¡¦s
sovereigntly over Taiwan, Ma said it was important to preserve history so that
future generations can learn from the past
Staff Reporter
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President Ma Ying-jeou looks at a photo of
himself, taken when he was working as an interpreter for former president Chiang
Ching-kuo, at the President and Vice President Records Museum that officially
opened yesterday.
Photo: CNA
President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) yesterday said the Republic of
China (ROC) has had sovereignty of Taiwan since 1943, when Japan ¡§agreed¡¨ to
give the ROC government claim to Taiwan proper and the Penghu Islands.
While some argue that the Cairo Declaration of 1943 was little more than a press
release, Ma said, in his view, the communique signed by the three leaders ¡X ROC
president Chiang Kai-shek (½±¤¶¥Û), US president Franklin Roosevelt and British
prime minister Winston Churchill ¡X in Cairo should be treated as a ¡§treaty¡¨ in
international law.
Ma said it was a statement of intent by the Allied powers in World War II that,
after the Japanese surrender, territory that Japan had ¡§stolen¡¨ from China ¡X
including three provinces in northeast China, as well Taiwan and the Penghu
Islands ¡X would be ¡§returned¡¨ to China.
The subsequent Potsdam Declaration of 1945 and Japan¡¦s surrender document
confirmed that the ROC had the right to resume sovereignty over Taiwan and the
Penghu Islands, Ma said.
Ma made the remarks at the inauguration of the President and Vice President
Records Museum in Taipei.
With the passage of time, Ma said, history becomes vague and some people
deliberately change it to satisfy the needs of various agendas.
Citing a recent cross-strait controversy over which camp had led the eight-year
war of resistance against the Japanese, Ma said evidence showed that it was the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ¡X not the Chinese Communist Party ¡X that led the
way.
Quoting former US president Theodore Roosevelt, Ma said it was important to
preserve history so that the next generation would know what happened in their
parents¡¦ and grandparents¡¦ time.
¡§To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where
they will be preserved for the use of men and women, a nation must believe in
three things,¡¨ Ma quoted Roosevelt as saying. ¡§It must believe in the past. It
must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its
own people to learn from the past so that they can gain in judgment in creating
their own future.¡¨
Located behind the Presidential Office, the museum is housed in an 86-year-old
Baroque-style historic building. Academia Historica, which took ownership in
2006, spent three years renovating the four-story building. Although the museum
was opened yesterday to coincide with Double Ten National Day celebrations, the
final remodeling on the fourth floor is not expected to be completed until
March.
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