On October 25, 1945, Zhongshan Hall hosted a ceremony witnessed by representatives from the US and the UK marking Japan's surrender of Taiwan. There, Chen Yi, head of the Taiwan Provisional Garrison Command, accepted surrender instruments from Rikichi Ando, the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan. (courtesy of KMT Party Archives)

The once important October 25 Retrocession Day holiday has slowly faded from memory since its removal from the rolls of national holidays during Lee Teng-hui's presidency. Nowadays, we no longer speak forcefully of our "victory in the war of resistance," but instead talk almost ruefully of "Japan's surrender."

In an effort to reestablish the retrocession's standing in the public's eye, the Taiwan Provincial Government and the Taipei City Government have staged an exhibition commemorating the 65th anniversary of the victory over Japan and retrocession to Chinese rule. Taipei's Zhongshan Hall, where Rikichi Ando, the last Japanese governor-general of Taiwan, signed surrender papers in 1945, will exhibit nearly 200 photographs depicting not just the activities of the Nationalist Army, but also the lesser known efforts of Taiwanese resistance groups such as the Taiwan Revolutionary Alliance and the Taiwan Volunteers, offering the public a different perspective on the relationship between Japanese-ruled Taiwan and the Republic of China.

"The building of the nation through revolution, the war of resistance to the Japanese, and Taiwan's retrocession are so closely linked as to be indivisible," avers Shao Ming-huang, director of the KMT Party Archives and the organizer of this exhibition.