PJ Vogt

The people who are settling don't totally get along with each other, but it sounds like Deadwood or something like that.

And so they're saying to Japan, like, as a peace offering, we're giving you territory.

It's not within the mainland, but it's very close.

So it's like a big give.

Once Japan colonizes Taiwan, what does Japanese colonization look like for Taiwan in Taiwan?

General Chiang Kai-shek is in full military uniform on an outdoor podium, declaring victory in 1945 after the defeat of the Japanese.

At the end of that fighting, Chiang Kai-shek's group, the Nationalists, had come out nearly on top, with just one rival remaining, the Communists.

The Nationalists had also done something very smart during World War II.

They'd sided with the Allies and gotten something in return, international recognition as China's legitimate rulers, and a promise that they would be handed all the territories Japan had seized from China at the war's end, including Manchuria, including Taiwan.

Why umbrellas?

And from the Taiwanese perspective, who are these clowns with their cooking pots and umbrellas?

reigning local nationalist, Governor General Chen Yi on the radio, telling the people he's declaring martial law, in his words, entirely to protect them.

This clip is a recreation, but those were his words.

What happened next is that on March 8th, nationalist troops landed on the island.

They began an indiscriminate campaign of violence against citizens.

Soldiers fired into crowds.

There were street executions.

People were pulled from their homes, tied together by wire to others, and thrown into Keelung Harbor to drown.

We'll never know the actual death toll.

According to scholars, it's somewhere between 10,000 and 28,000 people.