Chen Chu-Ching (陳主敬), 83, relived memories of a World War II air raid on his hometown on Thursday at an exhibition in Tianjhong Cultural Education Park in Changhua County to commemorate the end of the war.
Looking at photographs of the bombing by the US Air Force, Chen said that he relived the sights and sounds from his childhood.
Seventy years ago, when Chen was a child in Nantou County, when the air raid sirens blared he would run to hide in the mountains, he said. From the mountains, he could see a relentless stream of US B-25s bombing the Hsichou Sugar Refinery; flashes of light were followed by the roar of explosions.
“There was so much smoke and flame that I could see the refinery by firelight at night, even from Songbo Mountain (松柏嶺),” Chen said.
“At the time I thought it was strange and exciting,” he said.
Only years later did he realize how terrible war was.
The End of WWII 70th Anniversary Exhibition, a touring presentation, arrived on Wednesday in Tianjhong Cultural Education Park in Tianjhong Township (田中), Changhua County.
The exhibition’s curator is Yang Wen-ping (楊文彬), a former parliamentarian of the defunct National Assembly and a historian.
The exhibition displays a dazzling array of relics from Taiwan in World War II, including the uniform of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service that belonged to Taiwanese veteran Ling Tsai-shou (林才壽), the “Certain Victory” headbands issued to kamikaze pilots, the bomb that famously struck the statute of Matsu in Changhua’s Hohsing Temple and failed to explode, an air raid siren from the war and more than 100 aerial reconnaissance photographs of the US army’s strategic bombing campaign against Taiwan.
Yang said that the Hsichou Sugar Refinery was repeatedly bombed by US forces because later during the war, Japan relied on ethanol fuel fermented from sugar cane as a substitute for petroleum, which it lacked.
“We hope that our exhibition of war relics can teach the public of the horrors of war, the value of peace and to love Taiwan,” Yang said.
The exhibition ends on Sunday.
Source: www.taipeitimes.com