Taiwan

Note: This report only refers to the history of the territory held by the Republic of China since 1949 and the archives therein.

Following the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, China ceded the island of Taiwan to the Empire of Japan. Taiwan served as a base for the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia and the Pacific during the Second World War. Japanese imperial education was implemented in Taiwan and many Taiwanese also fought for Japan during the war. In 1945, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) took control of Taiwan. In 1949, after losing control of mainland China in the Chinese Civil War, the ROC government transferred to Taiwan.

Taiwan has had a small Jewish community only since the 1950s, dating back to when US troops were first stationed there. The community grew in the 1970s when expatriate corporate executives brought their families with them. The population of Taiwan numbered 5,821,000 in 1939.

Both the National Archives Administration, established in 2013, and the Institute of Taiwan history hold important collections on the history of the country. In 2002 a Holocaust Museum was opened in Bao'an, Rende Township, Tainan County (now part of Tainan City). As the Republic of China government moved most of the ministerial archives from the mainland to Taiwan after 1945, any Chinese documents related to the Second World War and the Holocaust now quite likely are held in the National Archives in Taipei.

EHRI has identified the National Archives of Taiwan and the Archives of the Institute for Modern History of Taiwan - Academia Sinica as likely to hold Holocaust-related material, but is yet to determine the exact nature and importance of their collections.