I was walking around Tainan near the city’s historical center. It is a great place to explore.
You can shop at the flower market, check out the wonderful cafes, and eat delicious meat buns.
But amidst the bustle of everyday life, I noticed a little monument tucked away in the corner.
At its top was a statue of a bomb.
A few blocks away, you can find the Hayashi Department Store. Opened in 1933, it was only one
of two buildings in the whole city at the time with a modern elevator. On its roof is a memorial
to the substantial damage the building and the city took during a massive WWII bombing raid.
As a Japanese colony, Taiwan had a crucial strategic role
in the Empire of Japan's colonization of Asia.
When the Japanese war effort began to crumble, the consequences of having such importance would
reach Taiwan's shores. In this video I want to talk about the time America bombed Taiwan.
Japan had positioned Taiwan as a source of resources and soldiers to power the war effort.
Taiwan's agricultural resources helped feed Japanese soldiers.
Taiwan's southern industrial centers helped build aircraft and fuel for those planes.
Several regiments were recruited out of Taiwan’s people.
When Japan idiotically began a violent war of Asian conquest,
Taiwan island became a natural target. At first these air strikes were tactical,
minor actions that were taken when the opportunity presented itself.
In February 23rd 1938, the Soviet Union strafed Songshan airport in Taipei. They had done this
on "Red Army Day" to show the ongoing ties of support between the Soviets and the Nationalist
government of the Republic of China. They dropped about 280 bombs which damaged a number of parked
Japanese aircraft. The attack came as a surprise and caught air defenses unaware.
The attack had little lasting effect. But as one of the first successful bombings on Japanese soil
(but far from the last), it holds some symbolism. Because Japan and the Soviet Union were not at
war with each other (and would largely not be with the signing of the Soviet–Japanese
Neutrality Pact in 1941), the raid was said to have been done by the "Soviet Volunteer Team".
That formal announcement was of course a charade and government officials knew the truth.
First Lady of the Republic of China Soong Mei-ling and her brother T.V. Soong
held a banquet to toast the pilots' actions, saying:
> You have used this air strike to show that the Russians are not talking in words,
but in actions ... it has helped the Chinese people
Other than this minor raid though, Taiwan stayed rather untouched over the next few
years of the War. The Americans did launch a 12-plane minor bombing raid of Taiwan in 1943
that damaged the Hsinchu Airport and downed 17 Japanese fighters. But that was about it.
This was all about to change, though, in 1944.
## Taiwan or the Philippines?
In July 1944, US President FDR met with Admiral Chester Nimitz
and General Douglas MacArthur to consult on strategy.
For over a year and a half, Nimitz and his superior Ernest King
had been at odds over the answer to a big question:
Should the Americans push for the acquisition of the island of Luzon in the Philippines?
Or Taiwan, then referred to as Formosa?
Most military planners saw Taiwan as strategically important to the war effort.
Seizing the island would secure supply lines to Mainland China,
more seriously cut Japanese lines of communication to the rest of its empire, and allow American
B-29s to drop heavier bomb loads to the home islands. Everyone agreed on this.
The disagreement was over the sequence. Which should America take first?
King, like I said, wanted to go for Taiwan first. But his subordinates and peers disagreed.
Nimitz and a few others felt that it would be imprudent to invade Taiwan
unless Japanese airpower launching out of Luzon was first neutralized. So he leaned to Luzon.
General MacArthur for his part refused to bypass any part of the Philippines. He famously
a few years earlier had declared that he would return there as the Japanese overran his forces.
And then yet another faction of officers felt that the Americans should bypass
both and go straight to a direct invasion of Kyushu.
The debate was long. But eventually the American military establishment
came to a shared consensus that a Luzon invasion presented better prospects than Taiwan.
The Philippines held value as a former American colony and its reconquest would
restore American prestige. This was a real factor, not just newspaper politics.
And frankly, the Luzon plan was more feasible.
The Japanese were already in the midst of rapidly arming Taiwan.
Invading the island with its rocky shores and challenging geography would not be a simple task.
Furthermore, the Taiwan plan also called for the simultaneous seizure of deepwater ports in Xiamen.
But Chiang Kai-shek's last airbases in southeast China had recently been taken by the Japanese,
losing critical air support for such a prospect.
By autumn 1944, an invasion of Taiwan was deemed to only win the island's
south - and would trigger a titanic Japanese counterattack from the forces stationed up north.
In the end, it just made more military and political sense.
The Americans eventually decided to skip Taiwan and focus on the Philippines.
In October 1944 they would fight and win the Battle of Leyte Island
and end three years of Japanese rule over the Philippines.
Such a decision would have great consequences. It spared the Taiwanese from the destruction
of an all-out American invasion. But as a consolation prize, the Americans launched
the first of a series of tactical bombing raids on Taiwan. The colonial authorities
began publishing leaflets so that the people can recognize the aircraft as they come.
## October 1944, Southern Taiwan
To support American efforts in the Battle of Leyte Island, the Americans positioned their
Navy Fast Carrier Task Force (TF38) to the southeast of Taiwan island.
They then launched daytime bombing raids on southern Taiwan in October 1944.
The targets would be Taiwan's military facilities: Sugar factories in Pingtung,
the port of Kaohsiung, and the Gangshan Aircraft Manufacturing Plant in Kaohsiung.
From the 12th to the 17th, four detachments bombed targets. The Japanese Air Force
launched to repel the invaders but they were brushed away with ease - the Japanese
would lose over 300 aircraft in what would later be called the Formosa Air Battle.
The Japanese Navy would lose much of its potential air cover in this battle,
a move of much consequence.
On December 26th 1944, the Americans won the Battle of Leyte and gained total dominance
of both the sea and air around the Philippines. Bombing raids to Taiwan would now come from there.
The people of Tainan, terrified, would dig deep air-raid trenches to protect themselves.
The government began evacuating children living in the cities to the countryside for their safety.
## 1945, Escalation
The bombing raids escalated. After January 11th, the US Air Force would launch over
7,700 sorties against Taiwan. They would drop 4,800 tons of fragmentation bombs
and over 4,000 tons of napalm on Taiwanese targets - mostly air fields and ports.
These sorties began as small-scale night-time raids. That first attack in January 11 was by
a mere three B-24s on the Pingtung airport. B-25s joined afterwards in February 1945
for the first time with a low-altitude bombing raid on the Chiayi Airport.
The night-time raids turned into day-time raids with a February 27th bombing raid
on the Kaohsiung Port. And they diversified from purely military targets like air fields and ports
to industrial factories, bridges and critical infrastructure.
In April, to support American forces now fighting in the Japanese island of Okinawa
(they had skipped Taiwan entirely), the Fifth Air Force launched another large
scale attack on Taiwanese airfields so to destroy Japanese aircraft. This was largely successful.
Taiwanese on the ground had no choice but to flee the bombings and watch their homes burn
to the ground. The bombers' were to only attack military and strategic targets,
but as with all things in the fog of war, soldiers did not always follow orders.
Streets, temples, churches, and marked hospitals also fell to the bombings.
## The May 1945 Taipei Air Raid
The May 31st 1945 Taipei air raid would be the biggest and most infamous American bombing of
Taiwan. The 403rd Squadron sent 117 B-24s to conduct non-stop bombardment of Taipei from
10 AM to 1 PM. Over 70,000 pounds of bombs were dropped on the city with little resistance from
the Japanese. By now the Japanese air force could no longer defend Taiwan in any shape or form.
Various landmarks were destroyed in the raid including the Penglai
Catholic Church and the Tamsui Theater. The Governor's mansion
(today the house of the Taiwan President) was severely damaged, hit by 2 bombs.
One report of the aftermath went as follows:
> Arrived at the Taipei Railway station in the evening ... many buildings and
shops ... were destroyed by fire bombs, without roofs or pavilions.
The streets are completely dark without electric lights.
Another eyewitness report from the memoirs
of 許曹德 Hsu Tsao-teh / Xu Caode goes as follows. Slightly edited for brevity:
> I remember that one afternoon, when the wind was beautiful, the sound of a huge airplane engine can
suddenly be heard from a distance. The sound was very shocking. I was taking a bath with my friends
by the village well. After hearing the ominous sound, everyone instinctively rushed to escape.
> I immediately approached the side wall of the house, crawling on the ground,
and then heard the ear-splitting sound of the plane flying into the village, shooting at us
from hundreds of meters above the ground ... I felt the American planes diving back and forth,
and I heard screaming as the walls of houses in the woods and villages were shot by bullets ...
> After the [attack was over], all the adults in the village hurried out to
look for their children ... After I got up from the ground shuddering,
I soon discovered two of my playmates by the well crawling on the ground, bloody and
dying ... The sounds of the planes leaving was replaced by the cries of the village's parents
The number of deaths that day is disputed. While some reports say 3,000 people died in that raid,
a contemporary Japanese report prepared by the Air Defense division
showed 759 deaths and 64 more missing.
## The Damage
The bombings would continue into the summer, but by July 1945 they started to wane.
The final bombing run happened in August 1945 with eight fighters to attack the Hualien Port.
Then the Japanese surrendered in August 15, 1945 and it was over.
After the war was over, the Americans dispatched a bombing investigations team to Taiwan in December
1945 to review and survey the damage. They surveyed the Governor's Office and also traveled
to Keelung, Yilan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung to make their evaluations.
Taiwan at the time was not an industrialized society. Most people lived away from the cities.
Bombings were mostly restricted to airfields, railways, and industry.
Half of all of Taiwan's trains were damaged in some way or form.
198 engines were destroyed. But because Taiwan had so few resources by then,
only a fraction of the 358 passenger cars or 1,800 freight cars could be repaired.
More urgently, over 60% of Taiwan's entire electric capacity was destroyed,
including its plant at Sun Moon Lake. Its return to form would be the key focus
for a young team of engineers led by future Premier Sun Yun-xuan.
Check out his video profile on this channel to learn more.
Interesting guy. He would later play a huge part in guiding Taiwan’s semiconductor industry.
6,100 people were killed in the bombing raids. 435 were missing and 9,235 were injured.
46,000 homes were destroyed, leaving 277,380 people homeless. The majority of this damage
was caused by bombs dropped by the American Fifth Air Force.
As Taiwan's industrial center, Kaohsiung was worst affected.
It was the target of 20% of the bombing raids with 30% of its homes destroyed or damaged.
To help the people recover, the United Nations in November 1945
set up an office to host foreign experts to assist in the reconstruction
of Taiwan's health, food and industry. A few months later in May 1946, the first of 200,000
tons of fertilizer, flour and other relief goods from the United Nations started to
arrive - thus helping the Taiwanese to start to put their lives together again.
World War II killed millions and changed the world forever.
Compared to the horrific losses of major combatants like the Soviet Union,
Germany, and Mainland China, Taiwan went through the war relatively unscathed.
Taiwan was a crucial part of the Japanese war machine, feeding it agricultural goods
and industrial items. America sought to cut those off with "strategic" bombings of that
infrastructure. For the most part, raiders sought to restrain themselves to only strategic targets,
but they were not always successful. The result was the horrific loss of civilian life.
After Taiwan was ceded to the Republic of China and Chiang Kai-shek took over,
his regime's history books focused heavily on the Second Sino-Japanese War
(literally known in Chinese as the Chinese Anti-Japanese War). Which is somewhat fair,
being that it was one of the biggest wars in Chinese history and a great victory.
But Taiwan's role in the war and the consequences of such were shoved off to the side.
Taiwan's bombings are now largely forgotten. Forgotten to such an extent that sometimes
Taiwanese people would say that it was the Japanese who bombed Tainan,
Kaohsiung and all of those cities. A sentiment that I find somewhat baffling.
It is hard to find remainders of this memory in the modern buildings of Taipei.
But if you go to Tainan and look for it, you will find little reminders of that sad past.