Does anyone know if it is possible to get internet access to full records of WWII bombing raids against “Formosa and the Pescadores”?
According to the best information which my associate Dr. Roger Lin has been able to assemble from Japanese sources, US bombing raids against targets in Taiwan began on October 12, 1944. I seem to recall that Hsinchu was the target on that day.
However, we have yet to assemble a full listing, and would be interested in more comprehensive details.
There 's some very interesting reading in here. I suspect for a full list of bombing missions the US military is your best bet.
The link appears to be a Taiwanese chap whose grand parents were killed by a bomb mission. He’s gathered some very interesting pieces. Welcome to Dr.Paul Hsiao’s Choshu(奸马), Formosa (Taiwan) Bombing Page
Here’s a taste:
With the establishment of the 5th Air Force on Luzon, one of its primary missions was the neutralization of the Japanese bastion of Formosa, a 250-mile-long island located a hundred miles off the China coast. This densely populated island served as a critical way station along the strategic shipping lanes to the southern part of Japan’s Asian and Southwest Pacific empire. It was also a critical component in Japan’s wartime economy. Agriculturally, it produced rice and sugar to feed Japan’s population, although many of its sugar mills had been converted to produce fuel alcohol–butanol–which was an important component of aviation gasoline. With a swift-flowing river system running down from its mountainous spine, Formosa’s dams produced hydroelectric power which was used to refine about 10% of Japan’s aluminum. The island had a highly-developed road and rail transportation system and an elaborate air defense network which included about 50 airfields.
The island had been the target of sweep by carrier aircraft and had been bombed by B-29’s, but the reduction of the inland’s strategic potential was left to the 5th Air Force which started a round-the-clock B-24’s and B-25’s in late January.[/quote]
HG
Taiwan had the living crap bombed out of it…It’s a shame more information isn’t available. I constantly see reference to a major air campaign involving the 7th fleet off the east coast in late 1944, where hundreds of Japanese planes were shot down, but can’t find any direct links to this engagement.
The debate of whether to invade Taiwan or the Philippines is an interesting one, and fairly well documented in this article.
army.mil/cmh-pg/books/70-7_21.htm
I for one never understood the decision to re-invade the Philippines, even after reading this article, the logic of taking Isle Formosa first seems unassailable. The US Navy rightly assumed that controlling the shipping lanes around Taiwan would have put a virtual stranglehold on merchant shipping to Japan from Southeast Asia, speeding up the shutdown of manufacturing in the homeland by denying access to critical raw materials. MacArthur of course, would hear nothing of it, citing National pride.
Kamakazee airgroups based in Taiwan accounted for huge losses In both Northern Luzon and the waters North of Taiwan right up until the end of the war.
US submariners had a field day here though…Pickets set up off both the east and west coasts are responsible for large Japanese naval losses.
I found some really nice photos of American P-47’s flying over the Central Mountain range after doing a strafing run over present day Suao, but can’t relocate the link…
One thing is for certain…An invasion of Formose first would have changed the entire face of the Pacific campaign, and possibly shortened the war.
Wu Bai’s song Air raid warning mentions much the same thing about the absence of ths particular piece of history (tranlsation and Taiwanese pinyin are not mine).
HG
[quote]空襲警報 - Kongxi Gingbao - Air Alert Alarm
空襲警報
kongxi gingbao!
Air strike alert!
阮阿公空襲的時早就已經跌落山腳
wan a gong kong xi e xi za jiu yi ging dua lo shua ka
My grandpa had already fallen to the bottom of the hill when the air strike happened
阮阿嬤的豬圈乎伊燒甲火乾
wan a mai e tiao ho yi xiu ga cao hui ga
My grandma’s pig farm was burned to the ground
阮阿爸上班的糖廠去乎掃甲一坑一嘎
wan a ba xiong ban e tang qiang ki ho sao ga ji kang ji kia
The sugar plant where my dad worked was filled with holes everwhere
做田的隴嘛走去躲在樹仔腳
zui can e long ma tia ki de qiu wa ka
The farmers all ran to hide under the trees
飛陵機若來你就趴落爛溝仔或是土腳
gui dang gi no lai li jiu pan lo lan gua wa ho xi to ka
When the planes came, you went into the ditch or just hid on the floor
阮厝邊有人未村去乎彈到腳
wan cu bin yu ran mi ki ho tan diu ka
One of my neighbours was too late and was shot in the foot
飛陵機來的時盛盛叫是有夠大聲
gui dang gi lai e xi sheng sheng giu xi yu gao dua xia
The noise of the planes was really loud
你遠遠無見人是已經有知影
li hun hun bo ki ran xi yi ging jiu zai ya
You can tell from a great distance
啊 這款的代誌 啊 學校隴無提 啊 那當時那這呢神秘
a ji kuan e dai ji a hong hao long bo ti a na dang xi na jia ni shi mi
ah… these kinds of things ah… the school never mentioned ah… why was it so secretive?
聽說是美軍要來炸臺灣的日本兵仔
tia gong xi mei hun be lai zha tai wan e ri ben bin wa
I heard it was the Americans who were bombing the Japanese soldiers in Taiwan
聽說咱隴總唱著日本的軍歌
tia gong lan long zong ching diu ri ben e hun gua
I heard we were all singing Japan’s military songs
聽說咱著要交出頭剪刀ㄔㄢㄌㄡㄌㄞㄅㄚ
tia gong lan diu be gao chu tao di dao chan lo lai ba
I heard we had to surrender our scissors and screwdrivers
說戰爭是保護咱自己的國家
gong zan jing xi be ho lan lan yi ge go ga
It was said that war was to protect our own country
啊 這款的代誌 啊 學校隴無提 啊 那當時那這呢神秘
a ji kuan e dai ji a hong hao long bo ti a na dang xi na jia ni shi mi
ah… these kinds of things ahhh… school never mentioned them ahhh… why was it so secretive then?
酸酸喲喲酸喲喲
sun sun yue yue sun yue yue
Sick at heart…oh, sick at heart
兒仔時的radio隴聽會到
er zai xi e radio long tia hui diu
I could hear them on the radio when I was younger
對你的了解哪這呢少
dui li a liao gai na jia ne jiu
Why do I know so little about you?
歷史的傷害擱有影不是親采
li su e xiong hai ge yu ya m xi qing cai
Is the wound from history really that bad?
自開始我隴當做是阮阿爸在說的詼頦
zu kai xi gua long dang zui wan a ba de gong e hui hai
I always thought that was my dad’s BS story
自開始不知咱過去有這麼多目屎
zu kai xi m zai lan gui ki yu ji me de ba sai
I never knew we had so many tears in our past
現此時咱是生活在塊不同的世界
en chu xi lan xi xing hua de me m tang e se gai
Now we’re living in a different world
不知影飛陵機何時會擱來
m zai ya gui dang gi ho xi hui ge lai
Who knows when the planes are coming next?
啊 這款的代誌 啊 學校隴無提 啊 未來嘛是非常神秘
a ji kuan e dai ji a hong hao long bo ti a mi lai ma xi hui xiong shi mi
ahh… these kinds of things ah… the school never mentioned ahhh… the future is very secretive too…[/quote]
Someone once told me that the US bombed the irrigation pumps because the arms of the lever look like flak guns.
Possibly there might be something on globalsecurity.org
The Japanese had orders to slaughter all the POWs in Taiwan if the island were invaded. This is discussed in the memorable book Banzai, You Bastards.
Under the US Constitution’s territorial clause (Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2), as a result of the military attacks on (Japanese) Taiwan during the WWII period, the United States has acquired Taiwan under the principle of “conquest.”
The United States is the “conqueror,” and hence the United States is the principal occupying power.
Since Taiwan was not awarded to the Chinese Nationalists in the post-war San Francisco Peace Treaty, it remains under the administrative authority of the United States.
See this research paper for further details –
taiwanadvice.com/conqudom.htm
Best source would be the Strategic Bombing Survey.
And a note regarding the politics. In WWII, Chennault ran one mission where weapons and supplies were air-dropped to aborigine guerrilla units in the mountains. When informed of the mission, Chiang called Chennault on the carpet and no such attempts to supply Taiwan native resistance forces were ever attempted again.
[quote=“MJB”]
One thing is for certain…An invasion of Formose first would have changed the entire face of the Pacific campaign, and possibly shortened the war.[/quote]
The beaches in Taiwan were and remain very poor for amphibious operations. In addition, the population in the Philippines supported the US and aided the liberation. In Taiwan, the US would have been going against an armed hostile population. The invasion of Okinawa was a cakewalk in comparison with what one of Taiwan would have been.
Well, while we’re on a binge of counter factual history. Is it true, as I’ve heard, that after the Opium War Britain was offered Formosa rather than Hong Kong? The idea as I understand it was to keep the gweilo as far away as possible and the British turned it down as being rather more of a commitment than was wanted.
Altogether a better idea than American occupation I feel. Arriviste empires!
Recent ebay finds: some of photos of Taiwan being bombed. These links probably won’t last long, so I suggest anyone that in intersted to save the pics. I can post them here for safe keeping if anyone requests.
I’ve read somewhere that there were also some sweeps by British carrier-based aircraft who were part of a covering force for the Iwo Jima landings.
Japanese airforce capability on Taiwan would be minimal by that time so strafing would perhaps have given them something to do.
[quote=“Comrade Stalin”][quote=“MJB”]
One thing is for certain…An invasion of Formose first would have changed the entire face of the Pacific campaign, and possibly shortened the war.[/quote]
The beaches in Taiwan were and remain very poor for amphibious operations. In addition, the population in the Philippines supported the US and aided the liberation. In Taiwan, the US would have been going against an armed hostile population. The invasion of Okinawa was a cakewalk in comparison with what one of Taiwan would have been.[/quote]
Old, speculative post of course, but the last point seems pretty unlikely. Okinawan’s maybe aren’t/weren’t “strictly” Japanese, but Taiwanese aren’t/weren’t either, and I can’t see fanatical civilian Taiwanese resistance to an American invasion as very likely.
IIR my reading correctly, civilian resistance wasn’t a big factor in Okinawa, though civilians did suffer a lot from both sides.
Here around Tainan there are some nicely constructed pill-boxes on the beaches and up the rivers which are probably relics of Japanese defences (though I suppose they could be later Kuomintang defences against China). In Kaoshiung it looks as if the mountain with the lighthouse on top (dunno the name) was set up as a mini Mt Surabachi, with tunnels and such, but nothing like the scale of the Normandy defences is anywhere evident.
in general the west coast is flat and open, with not much scope for cliff and cave defences.
All the fish ponds (assuming they were there in WW2) might limit inland exploitation a bit, but the allies had lots of amphibious armoured vehicles (LVT’s) which would probably have given them an edge even in that context. If Japanese forces held the mountains, they might have been hard to dislodge, but why would you bother?
So, can’t see it being worse than Okinawa.
Still wouldn’t have been much fun, though.
A better comparison would probably be the Philippines. That wasn’t much fun for sure. It came close to happening, and whatever happened the result wouldn’t have been in doubt. I wonder what civilian casualties would have looked like. I’d guess the US showed some kind of minimal attention to them at least when retaking the Philippines.
Like there still are people who aren’t strictly Chinese but heavily supports the KMT, there were plenty of Taiwanese people who weren’t strictly Japanese, but believed in the Anti-American brain washing so much, they were willing to give their lives for the protection of Taiwan, if not Japan. There were about 3 million military aged non-ethinic Japanese Taiwanese men at the time, 425,000 volunteered, 200,000 got enlisted, mostly put under transportation corps. Among all the aboriginals, less than 5,000 were deployed, but had the Americans landed in Taiwan, they would have made a difference.
One thing that Okinawa didn’t have is a large enough terrain for deep mountain/jungle guerrilla warfare. That type of terrain was abundant in Taiwan. If the Americans invaded Taiwan, professionally trained Aboriginals would be deployed on their home turf, armed with modern weapons, and would likely be joined by their tribesmen. During the war in the Pacific, over 70% of Aboriginal volunteers gave their lives. They were more likely to give their lives when it comes to “protecting their home.”
[quote=“hansioux”][quote=“Ducked”]
Old, speculative post of course, but the last point seems pretty unlikely. Okinawan’s maybe aren’t/weren’t “strictly” Japanese, but Taiwanese aren’t/weren’t either, and I can’t see fanatical civilian Taiwanese resistance to an American invasion as very likely.
…
So, can’t see it being worse than Okinawa.
[/quote]
Like there still are people who aren’t strictly Chinese but heavily supports the KMT, there were plenty of Taiwanese people who weren’t strictly Japanese, but believed in the Anti-American brain washing so much, they were willing to give their lives for the protection of Taiwan, if not Japan. There were about 3 million military aged non-ethinic Japanese Taiwanese men at the time, 425,000 volunteered, 200,000 got enlisted, mostly put under transportation corps. Among all the aboriginals, less than 5,000 were deployed, but had the Americans landed in Taiwan, they would have made a difference.
One thing that Okinawa didn’t have is a large enough terrain for deep mountain/jungle guerrilla warfare. That type of terrain was abundant in Taiwan. If the Americans invaded Taiwan, professionally trained Aboriginals would be deployed on their home turf, armed with modern weapons, and would likely be joined by their tribesmen. During the war in the Pacific, over 70% of Aboriginal volunteers gave their lives. They were more likely to give their lives when it comes to “protecting their home.”[/quote]
Who knows? Post above on supply drop to aboriginals suggests they weren’t uniformly pro-Japanese, as does their history of anti-Japanese colonial resistance.
Re mountain/guerrilla warfare, as I said, why would you bother?
The arguments for taking Taiwan would presumably be use/denial of ports and airfields. These are on the coast/in the coastal plains. Specific threats against them from the mountains might require neutralisation, but generally containment would be enough.
Sorties onto the exposed plains would face destruction by US firepower. Plenty of examples of that pattern in, say, the Burma endgame, and plenty of examples of bypassed Japanese forces left to starve.
[quote=“Ducked”]
Who knows? Post above on supply drop to aboriginals suggests they weren’t uniformly pro-Japanese, as does their history of anti-Japanese colonial resistance.[/quote]
Just want to point out Filipinos weren’t uniformly anti-Japanese and pro-American either. Most elites cooperated with the Japanese, such as José P. Laurel, and there were the Bureau of Constabulary, and the Makapili. People like Benigno Ramos who fought for independence from America worked with the Japanese. It was ultimately the IJA’s horrendous actions that drove most Filipinos back to pro-Americanism, as the US’ plan for an independent Philippines was already almost there.
Your wishes may be granted, as the gummit, as part of the commemoration of the 70 anniversary of the Victory against Japan, now will have especially included in the curriculum the Taiwanese opposition against the Japanese regime.