DBWI China gets Formosia

After world war 2 there was talk of handing over Formosia or Taiwan back to china, but after much deliberation it was decided that the area would be handled by the people who actually lived there. The people of the Island were given a vote become a part of China or remain a part of japan. To the surprise of many americans they chose to remain a part of Japan. Some thing that infuriated both comunist and nationalist forces in china during the time.

Now its been generations since then but the question remains what if Formosia had been given to china what would our world look like today?
 
Though the vote was extremely controversial at the time, we forget that unlike the Korean Peninsula, Japan treated Taiwan with a far more benign hand during colonial rule, and by the late 1930's there were already serious plans to effectively turn Taiwan into essentially another home island of Japan, split into eight prefectures with a phase out of the Governor-General office. Once the vote was taken with the Taiwanese voting to stay under Japanese rule, it essentially became the fifth home island of Japan, and many Japanese displaced from Karafuto (the southern half of Sakhalin Island) and Manchukuo at the end of World War II moved to Taiwan to start new lives.

I still remember all the newsreels of formation of the prefectural governments that replaced the Governor-General at the end of World War II. Today, Taiwan has effectively become the "Hawaii of Japan," and many well-off Japanese families have second homes on Taiwan, living there during the winter months to escape the cold winters that can affect much of the other Japanese home islands.

Today, the US military maintain a fairly large presence on the islands, and still does given the Communist rule of the mainland.
 
I heard that, instead of carving out a Republic remnant in Tibet and Western China, Chiang Kai-Shek considered going to Taiwan if China was given the island. If Formosa was given to China. Would they establish an exile Republic there instead.
 
I heard that, instead of carving out a Republic remnant in Tibet and Western China, Chiang Kai-Shek considered going to Taiwan if China was given the island. If Formosa was given to China. Would they establish an exile Republic there instead.

Given the weather there I'd be surprised if he could have enough followers survive
 
The fact that America refused to give Formosa back to China meant that both Communist China and the KMT remnant have been pissed at us for the past six and a half decades.
 
The fact that America refused to give Formosa back to China meant that both Communist China and the KMT remnant have been pissed at us for the past six and a half decades.

There was a vote and the people spoke, were a democracy in the end we had to honor the peoples will and they choose to remain with japan.
 
I heard that, instead of carving out a Republic remnant in Tibet and Western China, Chiang Kai-Shek considered going to Taiwan if China was given the island. If Formosa was given to China. Would they establish an exile Republic there instead.

Maybe. The US navy was in Japan, after all, and if they wanted, they could have kept the KMT alive in Taiwan. Sadly, the same could not be said in Tibet. Mountains, as it turned out, don't make as good an obstacle for the PLA as straits would.
 
Maybe. The US navy was in Japan, after all, and if they wanted, they could have kept the KMT alive in Taiwan. Sadly, the same could not be said in Tibet. Mountains, as it turned out, don't make as good an obstacle for the PLA as straits would.

What are you talking about? The PRC has refrained from invading the ROC remnant for the past 60 years because they need an enemy to rally their impoverished, brainwashed people to rally against.
 
What are you talking about? The PRC has refrained from invading the ROC remnant for the past 60 years because they need an enemy to rally their impoverished, brainwashed people to rally against.

Could of sworn they used Japan for that.
 
By the way, Taiwan saw a large number of Japanese from the main home islands of Japan emigrate there in the 1960's, many to escape the increasingly crowded conditions of the cities in Japan when Japan's economy really started to boom by the early 1960's. As such, currently the largest city on Taiwan is better known by the name Taihoku than then original Chinese version, Taipei. Indeed, Taihoku underwent massive urban renewal in the 1950's and 1960's with new, planned street structure almost exactly like what was done in Sapporo some 80 years earlier (indeed, street addresses in Sapporo and Taihoku use the same naming convention, which is different than the rest of Japan).

Getting back on topic, why was that vote originally taken? Besides the obvious fact the Japanese treated the Taiwanese much better than the Koreans, the Taiwanese impressed on the Americans the very fact there was MUCH fear there would be retribution against the Taiwanese native population if it was allowed to be returned back to China--both the Nationalists and Communists viewed the Taiwanese as Japanese collaborators and there could have been a bloodbath against the Taiwanese regardless of which side won the Chinese Civil War of 1945-1949. And it helped that many Japanese who had emigrated to Manchukuo and Karafuto in the 1930's were not welcomed home in the home islands of Japan, but they were welcomed on Taiwan--with over 450,000 people of Japanese descent from the former Manchukuo and Karafuto arriving in late 1940's to early 1950's.
 

Insider

Banned
well that would be a boost for Chinese economy - maybe not a big one - China is huge, but significant.
 
By the way, Taiwan saw a large number of Japanese from the main home islands of Japan emigrate there in the 1960's, many to escape the increasingly crowded conditions of the cities in Japan when Japan's economy really started to boom by the early 1960's. As such, currently the largest city on Taiwan is better known by the name Taihoku than then original Chinese version, Taipei. Indeed, Taihoku underwent massive urban renewal in the 1950's and 1960's with new, planned street structure almost exactly like what was done in Sapporo some 80 years earlier (indeed, street addresses in Sapporo and Taihoku use the same naming convention, which is different than the rest of Japan).

Getting back on topic, why was that vote originally taken? Besides the obvious fact the Japanese treated the Taiwanese much better than the Koreans, the Taiwanese impressed on the Americans the very fact there was MUCH fear there would be retribution against the Taiwanese native population if it was allowed to be returned back to China--both the Nationalists and Communists viewed the Taiwanese as Japanese collaborators and there could have been a bloodbath against the Taiwanese regardless of which side won the Chinese Civil War of 1945-1949. And it helped that many Japanese who had emigrated to Manchukuo and Karafuto in the 1930's were not welcomed home in the home islands of Japan, but they were welcomed on Taiwan--with over 450,000 people of Japanese descent from the former Manchukuo and Karafuto arriving in late 1940's to early 1950's.

OOC: Taipei isn't the Chinese name. That's Taibei. Taipei is Wade-Giles.
 
OOC: Taipei isn't the Chinese name. That's Taibei. Taipei is Wade-Giles.

However, in OTL, it's still far better-known under the name Taipei (that's what it's known even now). Now, under the pinyin pronunciation system used in China, it would definitely be called Taibei. And Taipei was the name it was known in the Western world in in this TL during much of the 20th Century until it did become part of Japan after World War II, where it increasingly became better known under the Japanese name Taihoku.
 
Top