Part 1 — Resurrect When the Time Comes

Born Japanese

In 2001 I was a special visiting professor of Hiroshima University. My official appointment was from May 19 to August 21. Because my stay was beyond the 90 day limit, even just a few days, I had to go to the Saijo City Hall to obtain a foreigner registration card. In the application form, I filled in without any hesitation “Taiwan” as the country of my birthplace.

The lady clerk typed in a new application form for me. After she finished typing, she handed the form to me and asked me to double check the data and then sign my name. As soon as I noticed that she had changed “Taiwan” to “China” as the country of my birthplace, I got upset and immediately said to her very seriously:

“Why did you change my birthplace from Taiwan to China? In that case I refuse to sign this application form.”

She felt embarrassed and went back to pick up a book from her desk. When she was turning the pages, I realized what she was looking for. She was looking for a statement from the book to explain why she made the change. Shortly after my arrival to Japan in May, I read in the news that a group of Taiwanese had gone to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to protest against a newly implemented regulation, which states that “the Taiwanese must use China as the country of birthplace in the foreigner registration form.” I knew she wanted to show me this new regulation. I waved my hand to show her that there was no need to use that book. Then, unable to control my emotion, I excitedly spoke to her in my broken Japanese mixed with English:

“If you really have to change Taiwan to something else, please change it to Japan. I was born in Shiowa 16th year when Taiwan was part of Japan. My nationality at birth was Japanese. If you use Japan as the country of my birthplace, then I will sign the form.”

Upon hearing my Japanese, though broken, and learning that I was born Japanese, she smiled to me very sweetly. She put the book back to her desk and corrected my birthplace to Taiwan in the application form.

In fact, she has no way to force me to sign a form with China as the country of my birthplace. She cannot comply with this irrational government regulation in my case. Every word of what I had told her was the truth. Moreover, in my U.S. Passport, the birthplace was clearly printed as Taiwan, not China.

After making the correction she asked me to sign the form. Although she had scratched out the word “China,” it was still visible. Without saying a word, I repeatedly scratched out the word “China” until it was completely gone and the paper almost torn apart, and then I signed my name. While I was doing all this, I heard her laughing loudly and very sweetly. Perhaps she has never seen such a stubborn person or perhaps she was amused by my childish behavior.

When I was walking out the city hall, my accompanying Japanese friend Izumi said to me:

“The young lady understood very well what you meant.”

I thought so, too. But I cannot help think something more. When she enters my data to a computer file, would she change my birthplace back to China in order to avoid possible confrontation with her superior? I could not do anything about it. This kind of thing is beyond my ability to correct. I can only correct anyone who mistakes me as a Chinese and say repeatedly

“I am a Taiwanese, not a Chinese.”

I am quite aware of the fact that most Americans think Taiwanese are Chinese and that Taiwan is part of China. I know the reason why they have this misconception. Their understanding about Taiwan often comes from the mass media. Whenever there is political news about Taiwan, the report always automatically adds two sentences that “Taiwan was split from China in 1949” and “The People’s Republic of China regards Taiwan as a renegade province.” These two sentences lead people to have the misconception that Taiwan had always belonged to China since long long time ago.

Whenever I read these two sentences in a news report, I instantly feel very angry. I, as a Taiwanese, feel extremely helpless because I do not know how to make the American and other people aware of this serious misunderstanding. I can only keep telling people around me,

“Taiwan has never belonged to China.”
“Taiwan is not a province of the People’s Republic of China.”
“Taiwanese are not Chinese.”

American passports

On July 4, 1975 I and my wife attended the naturalization ceremony in Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, and swore an oath to become U.S. citizens. Being naturalized on this American Independence Day has a very special meaning to me. Born a Japanese citizen, later forced to be a Chinese citizen of Chiang’s regime, and finally with my own free will I became an American citizen. My joy was overwhelming. After being naturalized, the first thing I did was to tear apart my passport issued by the Republic of China and throw it into a trash can.

At that time Taiwanese regarded Republic of China as being identical to the regime of Chiang Kai-shek, which was a foreign regime. As much as I hated it, I had no other choice but to carry a Republic of China passport in order to come to the United States. When I destroyed the passport I had a strong sense of relief at the bottom of my heart as if I were being liberated from bondage. I felt so free.

I have held several American passports in the past decades. I applied for the first passport right after I was naturalized since I had to go to Germany in two weeks. When I saw “China” printed as the place of birth in my passport, I was unhappy but could not do anything about it. Chiang’s regime was ruling Taiwan and claimed to represent China. On the other hand, the United States had already normalized the diplomatic relationship with the People’s Republic of China. The US government recognized the People’s Republic of China as representing China and took notes that Taiwan was part of China. Taiwan was suffering double oppression, the internal one from Chiang’s regime and the external one from international super powers which would set the course to determine the fate of Taiwan.

When I renewed my passport in 1980, I capitalized “TAIWAN” as my birthplace in the application form. In addition, I attached a note stating that my birthplace was Taiwan. However, my effort turned out to be in vain. My new passport still had “China” printed as the place of birth.

In 1985 I had to renew my passport again. This time I was more careful and composed a nice letter to explain that I was born in Taiwan and that I was a Taiwanese American. I emphasized in the letter that printing “China” as the place of birth in my passport was an insult to me and might create misunderstanding. However, my pleading letter did not help at all. My new passport still had China printed as the place of birth. In response to my letter, the passport office attached a memo saying that they issued my passport according to the guidelines of the Department of State. When I noticed that the new passport is valid for ten years, I cried “Good heavens! How can I bear the insult for ten more years?”

I started to wonder how much the Americans understood the situation in Taiwan and why they mistook Taiwanese as Chinese. I even wondered whether Filipinos would be ridiculously taken as Chinese in case Chiang Kai-shek, being defeated by Mao Tse-dong in China, fled to the Philippines instead of Taiwan in 1949?

At the end of World War II Japan gave up authority of Taiwan without specifying to whom Japan would hand it over. The highest commander of the Allied Forces asked Chiang Kai-shek to temporarily occupy Taiwan until the United Nations had a resolution which would determine the future of Taiwan. However, at that time Chiang Kai-shek had no ability at all to send his army across the Taiwan Strait to reach Taiwan. It was the U.S. Air Force which provided airplanes to carry Chiang’s army to Taiwan. It is not an overstatement to say that the United States airdropped Chiang’s army on Taiwan, which has made the Taiwanese suffer ever since. Sometimes, I would jokingly tell my Japanese friends:

“The Americans dropped two atomic bombs in your country. But you Japanese are quite amazing. In just a few years you could recover from the war damages. The Americans dropped only one bomb, namely the bomb of Chiang’s army, on Taiwan. It has already been over half of a century and we Taiwanese are still suffering from that bomb.”

Actually, the Taiwanese are hard-working people. Beginning in the eighties many Taiwanese organizations had worked together persistently to appeal to the U.S. Congress and to protest to the Department of State against the irrational regulation which printed “China” as the place of birth for the Taiwanese American passports. Finally the Department of State abolished this regulation in 1995 and allowed Taiwanese Americans to use “Taiwan” as the place of birth in their passports. When I first heard of this wonderful news, I was overjoyed. My passport had already expired for several months. I did not want to renew it because I could not bear another ten years of insult with “China” as the place of my birth.

I was very happy that now I could use “Taiwan” as the place of birth for my passport. The United States is after all a great country of understanding. But I was cautious. I waited for a few months and learned that some of my friends had obtained such passports. Then I decided to renew mine. I did not use mail service and went in person to the New Orleans passport office on February 6, 1996. When I handed in the completed application form, I said to the office clerk,

“My birthplace is Taiwan. If you change it to China, then I do not want the passport.”

I told him that I would stay all the time in the waiting room so that, in case he had any questions, he could ask me immediately. I was afraid that he might not be informed of the new implementation. In that case I would use some documents such as the congressional resolution, which I had brought with me, to argue with him.

A few hours later, I was called to get my passport. At the window the same office clerk told me, “Here is your new passport, the place of birth is China.” Upon seeing my angry face, he quickly laughed to me, “Just kidding!”

I immediately opened the passport and kissed the word “Taiwan” for my birthplace. I was so happy that a few tears flowed down my face. I shook hand with him and said,

“Thank you! This is a very happy moment in my life.”

He held my hand firmly and wished me good luck. His words might be just for simple blessing. On the other hand, he might be concerned whether I would be allowed to visit China. Right after the Congress passed the resolution, the Chinese government issued a warning: “The People’s Republic of China will not grant a visa to any Taiwanese American if Taiwan is printed as the place of birth in the passport.”

I did not care about the warning. I went to China in 1990 for the first time. My experience during the visit was so bad that I had not had any desire to go back to China ever since.

China twice ruled by foreigners

In 1966, I left Taiwan for the United States in order to continue my study of mathematics in the graduate school of Cornell University. However, I considered myself as a political refugee. I could not bear to live under the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek.

From elementary school to college I received the political propaganda education of Chiang’s regime. I was forced to say that I was a Chinese and not a Taiwanese. It was a political taboo to say “I am a Taiwanese.” One could be interrogated by Chiang’s secret police for saying it in public. Chiang’s colonial education system planted the ideology of Chinese superiority and Taiwanese inferiority in my mind. I even looked down my fellow Taiwanese school mates.

While in college my thoughts began to mature. But I still had the “Great China” mentality and would say “I am a Chinese, also a Taiwanese.” Only in front of close friends had I the courage to say “I am a Taiwanese.”

While at Cornell, I met and discussed politics with a lot of people. I often made time to read books, magazines, and newspapers in order to learn things about China and Taiwan. I broadened my knowledge and developed an independent way of thinking. I started to look things from different angles, which led me to examine what I was taught under Chiang’s regime from the Taiwanese viewpoint. At the end I found my Taiwanese identity. When I left Cornell in 1970, I could say loudly to anyone,

“I am a Taiwanese, not a Chinese.”

My strong Taiwanese identity made it very hard for me to be friendly with those Chinese in the Chiang Kai-shek group. At Cornell, I did not meet any Chinese from the People’s Republic of China and had a neutral attitude toward PR Chinese. However, I met many PR Chinese in later years and found them to be exactly the same as those Chinese in the Chiang Kai-shek group. They have the same mentality and attitude toward Taiwanese.

I will discuss my life and experiences at Cornell in Chapter 8. Here I just mention a few important things that happened to me when I first got to Cornell. They had a strong influence on me for a long time.

I remember very clearly that I met an American classmate when school started. After a few words of conversation he suddenly asked me,

“Do you know that China was twice ruled by foreigners?”

I was completely shocked with this question. As much as I disliked Chiang’s regime, I still had the Chinese superiority syndrome. I thought that China was the greatest country in the whole world and had always been the “Central Country.” So I protested to him, “No, China has never been ruled by any foreigner.” But he continued,

“Yes, China was twice ruled by foreigners, namely, the Mongolians and the Manchurians.”

I told him that Mongolians and Manchurians were Chinese as I learned from the textbooks in Taiwan. I even tried to argue with him by using the Chinese dynasty history which I memorized thoroughly. But there was no use. I simply could not convince him and he insisted that Mongolians and Manchurians were not Chinese.

Then I started to ponder. Are Mongolians and Manchurians Chinese? If Mongolians were Chinese, how come a national hero Yeh Fei wanted to drink the blood of Mongolian foreigners? If Manchurians were Chinese, how come Sun Yat-sen started his revolution by saying that he wanted to expel the Manchurian foreigners and to restore the Chinese power?

While in Taiwan I would not think about these questions. If I did, I could be labelled by Chiang’s secret police as “a person of undesirable thinking” and get myself into big trouble; certainly I would not be allowed to go abroad.

After reading many books on Chinese history and philosophy at the Cornell Olin Library, some prohibited by Chiang’s regime, I finally discovered the true reason why Chinese claimed that Mongolians and Manchurians were also Chinese. It was the Chinese superiority mentality. They would never admit being ruled by foreigners by including Mongolians and Manchurians as Chinese. On the other hand, they claimed that Taiwanese were also Chinese in order to justify their intention to take over Taiwan.

The second thing that influenced me a great deal was a small magazine called “Taiwanese Youth” which I started to receive in my mailbox shortly after my arrival at Cornell. This magazine was published by a group of Taiwan Independence activists in Japan. It had many articles on the 228 Uprising and Taiwanese history. When I was a boy, I overheard my father and uncles talking about 228 Uprising. But when I asked about it, they would immediately warn me,

“Kids should only have ears, but no mouth.”

This was a typical phrase for Taiwanese to warn their kids for the fear of Chiang’s secret police. Reading articles about the 228 Uprising in the Taiwanese Youth magazine made me eager to read books on the history of Taiwan, which we were not allowed to read under Chiang’s regime.

In the Taiwanese Youth magazine I also read an interesting article about a historical fact that Mao Tse-dong advocated independence of both Korea and Taiwan in 1938. At that time both Korea and Taiwan were ruled by the Japanese. As a matter of fact, Koreans and Taiwanese have very similar histories and cultures.

At Cornell I met Lee Teng-hui who told a Bible story which I have always born in my mind. Lee, 18 years older than me, was studying agricultural economics. At that time, there were about 20 Taiwanese graduate students on campus. At first there was not much socialization among them. Lee started to invite all Taiwanese student to his apartment on special Taiwanese holidays. This was the origin of the Cornell Taiwanese Student Association. Beside enjoying the good food, we also had casual conversation which always led to politics in Taiwan. However, unlike most of us, Lee seldom made any remark criticizing Chiang’s regime. He held a government scholarship and had to return to Taiwan upon finishing his Ph.D. degree.

Even though I planned to stay in the United States, I would criticize Chiang’s regime only in front of very close friends. In public gatherings I was still a person who “only has ears, but no mouth.” I did not dare make any anti-Chiang remark because I was afraid that Chiang’s spies might be behind my back.

Lee Teng-hui finished his Ph.D. degree in 1968. Before he returned to Taiwan, we had a farewell party for him. He told us a Bible story to cheer us up. He said that Jesus and his disciples arrived at a deserted mountain. Seeing everyone depressed with no confidence for the future, Jesus pointed to the countless corpses on the mountain and said,

“Do not think that they are dead. When the time comes, they will resurrect.”

I did not know whether Lee was speaking of himself to us or wanted to encourage people who “only have ears, but no mouth” like me. But this story always gives me hope and confidence on the future of Taiwan. Twenty years later, Lee Teng-hui became the president of Taiwan.