Rochester (CA 124) - Naval Cruise Book

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FORMCSA The last important stage of the island's development before World War II began with the Chinese-Japanese War of 1894-95. At the treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 Formosa was ex- cluded from the terms of the armistice. In fact, an ill-fated Republic of For- mosa was set up with these words: The literati and people of Formosa are determined to resist subjection of Japan. Hence they have declared them- selves an independent Island Republic, at the same time recognizing the suze- rainty ofthe Sacred Tsing Dynasty. Six days later however a group of Japanese transports assembled off Agincourt island near Keelung and landed. Northern Formosa was in a panicky uproar, looting and setting afire of government buildings by mobs, together with the Japanese advance from Keelung to Taipei forced the death of the ten-day old republic, and the beginning of a long Japanese reign over the island. From 1895 to 1902 unorganized but open Formosan-Chinese resistance to Japanese rule resulted in seven years of bloody war and suppression. Right up through the second World War the picture on the island was the same- 9 4 -A-We -- . x - as organized revolt against the Japanese breaking out at regular intervals. The Japanese, however, did add to the economic standard of Formosa, introducing technological and ideo- logical advancements. During World War II Formosa was used as a Japanese air base and as a marshalling-place for troops and materiel. The postwar fate of Taiwan was determined in November 1953 at the Cairo meeting of Chiang, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill who decided that the island and the Pescadores would be returned to China upon cessation of hostilities. In 1949, Formosa attained its present strategic importance when Chiang and the Nationalist government were forced there and Taiwan became the last non-Communist outpost in a country which was once an important Allied power. Because President Truman committed the United States to Formosa's defense, and because the Communist government had stated that it would liberate Taiwan without fail, the American Seventh Fleet was ordered to patrol the Formosan strait on June 27, 1950. In performance of this task the ROCHESTER made its 1955 cruise to WestPac. To the casual American observer, the people of Formosa were a strange mixture of the quaintly primitive and the astonishingly modern. While their fathers trudged along behind the family oxen, Formosan girls were working in the International Club or the Harbor Bar, jitterbugging and mambo-ing better than most of their round-eyed sisters in the United States. Many of the taxi-dancers in Keelung and Taipei have pursued their business in such mainland cities as Shanghai, Canton, and Tsingtao, migrating to Kaosiung in southern Formossa, and then to Keelung when the United States began making it a Naval port. The influx of the American sailor and his money into Formosan cities has brought about changes in the every-day life of their inhabitants. The little children peddle Wrigley's gum, Lucky Strike cigarettes and Hershey's chocolate and are faster in converting from Taiwan yuan to dollars than most Americans. The souvenir merchants, the pedicab drivers, the prostitutes, the police and the telephone operators had to speak English well enough to out-barter the sailor in any financial transactions. Although Keelung was scarcely a replacement for Long Beach, or even Yokosuka, as a home port, the ROCHESTER's visit to the beautiful land was a novel and interesting experience.