The Early Postwar Years

In October 1945 Chen Yi accepted the Japanese surrender in Taipei and took over Japanese offices, factories and land. Taiwanese caught in a 1946 Tokyo riot could not say which country they belonged to. At home, Japanese-language papers were banned.

Prices rose several times over, and Taipei ran short of rice. On 27 February 1947 monopoly agents beat a widow selling cigarettes and shot a bystander dead. Troops landed on 8 March. Lawyers, doctors and teachers were taken away.

Chen Yi was removed. On 13 July 1949 in Penghu, every refugee schoolboy taller than a rifle was put into the army. In August Washington published its China White Paper. In December the Republic of China government moved to Taipei.