It’s a stretch to call Hirohito a dictator though. He was more of an embodiment of the system.
Japanese treated POWs like crap, but I’m only aware of the 1945 famine in Vietnam, which is hard to pin to a single cause. The French can share some of the blame, and there’s a natural disaster factor to the Northern Vietnam famine (drought with pests). It cause at most 2 million deaths, so even if you pin it to Hirohito, he is still shy of 2 million to catch up to Chiang baldie.
The Yellow River breach and subsequent mass starvation has a clear non-natural cause and a clear culprit.
Every Vietnamese I know who actually fled Vietnam mentions that the Japanese set up industrial farms to supply food for the Japanese army and that the locals didn’t have enough food which caused mass starvation. I believe it’s the same thing as the 1945 famine that you are referring to.
I’ve heard my elderly Taiwanese relatives tell stories about only having sweet potatoes to eat, and roasting cockroaches for the meat, during that time.
The Japanese did that to every place they occupied, including right here in Taiwan, because they were starving in Japan themselves.
The dam breach is largest act of environmental warfare in history.
When Chiang baldie ordered the breach, it caused 1 trillion tons of silt that made the river yellow in the first place pour into the central plains. The silt clotted all causeways and irrigation networks, filled up the lakes, buried farm lands of 3 provinces, leaving them uncultivable.
The Japanese spent more men and aid to help out the refugees then either Chinese government. They even tried to repair the dam but with limited effects.
In addition to the 890 thousand that died from the initial flood, the river would flood every year since the 1938 and destroy all livelihood until when the dam was fixed in 1947.
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I am not sure that “ranking” dictators or mass murderers is really the way forward here.
For me, it’s still amazing how different people in Taiwan perceive history so differently. The unevenness of such perceptions is a sign of how uneven things are in other ways too.
Guy
That doesn’t really count as murder, and it’s hard to quantify anyway. But yeah, CKS was an asshole…no disputing that. For the number four spot, I nominate King Leopold II. He’s said to be responsible for the deaths of 10 million Congolese…again hard to quantify, but I’d say the regime he put in place in the Belgian Congo was way more brutal than Peanuthead’s.
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Interesting that in this article, they put CKS’ years in power as 1928-1949. Being dictator of Taiwan doesn’t count as being in power? Is that because Taiwan isn’t a country? Stuff like this (well, and lots of other stuff) is probably why I tend to stay away from The Daily Beast.
What about Genghis Khan? His death toll is estimated to be around 40 million, which puts him even with Mao.
I figured deaths on the battlefield didn’t count as murder. That’s why I didn’t mention him. I guess it depends on how you define your terms. Also, as populations have increased over the centuries, there are just more warm bodies to slice and dice. Maybe these figures should be calculated as “percentage of given population murdered.”
Or percentage of domestic population… but then if a place like Sealand has a murder-suicide of, what, 5 people(?) then it counts as 100%. There’s no easy answer. 
C’mon, man! [in Obama voice] Sealand is even less of a country than Taiwan is. 
I said place, not country. 
Well, when you say “domestic population” it creates certain assumptions. I suppose it could be a household you’re referring to.
Yep, anything in the domus. 
The Mongols loved to slaughter entire cities that resisted them. They do it so that people don’t oppose them. It’s a fear factor thing. Although infamous slaughters like the after math of the siege of Baghdad and other Chinese cities happened post Genghis Khan’s death.
The mayor has apologized to the Hatta family.
And the statue war arms race continues…
Association president Yang Ming-feng (楊明風) said the repaired statue would be well-protected and well-monitored with improved lighting and cameras.
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Just as an aside about evil dictators… Stalin supposedly would start his day with page after page of people who he would list for execution or not. Everyday.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2017/05/29/498029/vandals-strike.htm
This was pretty funny.
Decapitating a statue? ‘Simpsons’ did it first.
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