Sources: All Taipei Newspapers

 

December 26, 2014

 

Yesterday the ROC Defense Ministry released a memorial calendar commemorating the 70th anniversary of the nation’s victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.  The calendar includes Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Major General Zuo Quan (左權), raising public eyebrows.  

 

The Defense Ministry stated that the ROC armed forces must tell the public the unbridled truth as the CCP claims that  their troops played the key role in the victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.  The Defense Ministry issued the calendar in order to describe the heoric sacrifices made by the ROC armed forces and ensure that history was written based on the facts.  The Defense Ministry added that there was no need to intentionally ignore the contributions made by the CCP armed forces, so the calendar took care to include the fallen CCP general.

 

Zuo Quan graduated in the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy (黃埔軍校) in 1924 and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1925. (The KMT and the CCP cooperated for the first time from 1921 to 1925.)   Zuo served as deputy chief of staff of the Communist-commanded 18th Army Group under the overall command of the National Revolutionary Army (國民革命軍) of the Republic of China.  When Japanese troops attacked the guerrilla bases of the Communist-commanded Eighth Route Army in May 1942, Zuo died in action while trying to break the siege of the Japanese troops.

 

Major General David Lo (羅紹和), spokesperson of the Defense Ministry, stated that the Defense Ministry plans to issue 10,000 copies of the calendar and give them to units of the ROC armed forces and public schools, adding that the Defense Ministry also plans to issue English versions of the calendar for foreign visitors and foreign missions in Taiwan.

 

【Editor’s note: On July 22, 1937, the CCP issued a declaration of national crisis following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.  The ROC 

Government formed a united front line with the CCP, allowing its armed forces to jointly fight against Japanese Aggression under the ROC Armed Forces.  The CCP armed forces were under the command of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, flying the ROC flag and wearing uniform of the ROC Armed Forces.  Historians have dubbed this period as the second cooperation between the KMT and the CCP.】