Taiwan becomes Japanese

by bemused 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  bemused

  Well no, not really, but I was glancing down the contents page of the January 2014 Awake! and saw reference to a Japanese scientist with a suspiciously Chinese sounding name. Sure enough, clicking through to the article revealed that the lady is from Taiwan not Japan.

  OK, that's just a silly editorial mistake. However I read the article, looking out for the often employed WT practice in science articles of the unattributed quote. I was not disapponted. Apparently a 'professor' (we're not told who) wrote a 'book' (not allowed to know which book either) saying that complex proteins could not have arisen 'randomly' (so what? - evolutionary science does not claim that life arose randomly). It's no wonder that most JWs I've met have no idea what evolution actually teaches, but they are nevertheless sure it's wrong.
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  Phizzy

  And ironically, most JW's have no idea what the WT teaches, but they are sure it is right.
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  NewYork44M

  Funny.

  Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up already.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  My comment is not to attack your basic premise, bemused.

  Essentially, I agree that the WT practise of un-referenced and unattributed citations and quotations is a stupid, deceptive practise.

  However, I wanted to clarify the thought expressed in the thread title, and in your comment:

  1. Taiwan becomes Japanese.

  Taiwan was Japanese from 1895 to 1945. China, then controlled by the Manchurian Qing dynasty, lost the 1894-1895 Sino-Japanese war and was forced to cede territories, including Taiwan and the nearby Pescadores Islands to Japan.

  

  From Wikipedia:

  Japanese troops enter Taipei, June 1895

  As a result of WW2, Japan was forced to return Taiwan to China (but the name of a small nearby island was left off the agreement) in 1945.

  And as an aside: By 1947, Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist Party (then, still controlling China) had become suspicious of the loyalty of many young professionals in Taiwan, and in what is called the 228 massacre rounded up an unknown number (but thought to be a minimum of 10,000 and a maximun of 30,000) of young intellectuals and professionals and killed them.

  This has never been publicised to any extent in the west, as the USA was supporting Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists in the Civil war with the Communists.

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  2 (a) reference to a Japanese scientist with a suspiciously Chinese sounding name. Sure enough, clicking through to the article revealed that the lady is from Taiwan not Japan.

  OK, that's just a silly editorial mistake.

  Not neccessarily! As you can see from the above, there are ties betwen China and Japan. Not only from the 50 years of Japanese control of Taiwan, but also from many other connections. Dr Sun Yatsen, seen as the founder of modern China, had many Japanese supporters. Sun Yatsen and his Japanes supporters also gave support to Philippino freedom fighters, fighting against the savage American invasion of the Phillipines.

  The past still affects the present, this Japanese woodcut (below) tells of 'glorious' and 'victorious"

  Japanese troops invading the Pescadores, an island group between China and Taiwan.

  

  And, just north of Taiwan is another group of islands that is at the centre of the current

  dispute between China and Japan.

  

  These islands should have been returned to China in the post WW2

  agreement that returned Taiwan and the Pescadores to China, but

  the names were left off the agreement. A"mistake" or was it on purpose?