Taiwan, where Netaji's plane crashed, invites Indians for more research
India Today
Taiwan, where Subhas Chandra Bose's plane crashed in 1945, has invited Indian scholars to visit their country and study the historical documents on Netaji available in their archives.
Taiwan has invited Indian scholars to visit their island nation and study the historical documents on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose available in their archives. It was in Taiwan where Netaji’s plane supposedly crashed in 1945.
Taiwan’s Deputy envoy to India, Mumin Chen -- while speaking at an event organised by FICCI on Saturday for the 125th birthday celebration of Netaji -- offered to open the National Archives to Indian scholars for further study about the Indian freedom fighter.
“A lot of historical evidence and documents about Netaji and Indian independence movement are in Taiwan. Right now very few Indian scholars notice this there are photos and historical documents which show there were a lot of reports about Netaji,” Mumin Chen said.
A fair amount of Netaji’s struggle to liberate India was on foreign soil, from Afghanistan and Burma, to the Far East in China including Taiwan, Japan and the South East Asia in Singapore; and Europe.
“I call on our friends in India to do something about this in the future. We have National Archives and database. We could have Indian scholars to come and find out more about Netaji and his legacy who had a huge influence on Taiwan in the 1930s and 40s,” the Taiwanese diplomat said.
Back then Taiwan was a part of Japan. When the Japanese were ousted and Chiang Kai-shek took control of Taiwan then all the colonial history, including reports around Netaji’s visits and death - were never publicised till the 1990s when Taiwan achieved democracy.
The Taiwanese diplomat added that India and Taipei have “historical connections” that most who grew up before the 1990s had very little or no knowledge about. But he also acknowledged, "In 1940s, Chiang Kai-shek also wrote about Netaji in his dairy. He felt the decision to cooperate with Japanese in fight for independence, was understandable."
