Taiwan/Formosa or Philippines?

Nimitiz and King wanted US effort to concentrate on capturing Taiwan/Formosa. We know FDR ruled in favor of MacArthur's plan to liberate the Philippines.

How stiff would Japanese resistance be in Taiwan/Formosa? The population was not Japanese but like Korea under Japanese rule since 1905. Having been there so long, I would expect there to be more fortifications.

Philippines and the Filipinos did not like the Japanese who offered them nothing but brutality. They had numerous guerilla operations that became a Fifth Column that hampered Japanese troops, fought, raided and gathered intelligence for the Americans.

 

OpanaPointer - I'm aware of the conference between Nimitz, MacArthur and FDR and that the decision was made there, but what about the difficulty of taking Taiwan? Would the people of Formosa have fought or suicided themselves like others?

 

Formosa was composed of Chinese with a Japanese garrison, so I don't see their people going all Banzai on us. Look up Operation Causeway.

 

Thank you Col. Hessler. I always thought Nimitz supported or advocated for Formosa/Taiwan.

To me the decision to go into the Philippines was correct. Friendly native force that was resentful of the Japanese. I couldn't say the same of the Formosans/Taiwanese who were long aquainted with the Japanese.

Do you know the extent of Japanese prepardeness there? I suspect the Formosans/Taiwanese would have been used mostly as laborers like the Koreans were. I don't even think we had any intelligence assets there. Interpreting photos can be tricky if not misinterpreted.

 

John McManus' third book in his trilogy about the US Army in the Pacific, To The End of The Earth, somewhat responds to the question and I just finished the first chapter last night. There were Formosan soldiers in Japanese service. They were guarding the Los Banos PoW camp and were cut off by a raiding force whose intent was to liberate the PoWs. Their commander had PoWs whom were held hostage and negotiations ensued that allowed for them to leave but without their heavy weapons (rifles and pistols only) - sort of "honors of war" type thing ala 18th Century. Once they were free of their American escorts, they broke up in all directions and fled despite their captain trying to hold them together as a unit. If this was characteristic of the Formosans (not saying they were cowards but rather reluctant draftees who didn't revel in the notion of dying for the emperor), they had to be kept under tight control to keep them fighting.

Philippines was the correct choice and Formosa/Taiwan would have been been more costly.

Side issue: When the KMT/Nationalist Chinese were kicked off the mainland, they fled to Formosa/Taiwan. The KMT considered them traitors and when the Formosans/Taiwanese tried resisting, they were slaughtered by the KMT.

Opana Pointer is correct in asserting that there were some cannibalistic tribes in Taiwan/Formosa. I doubt if they continued that practice after the Japanese took control in 1905. Japanese didn't play games.

 

No shortage of cannibalism in the Twentieth Century either.

Per Walter Craig's Enemy At the Gates, some Italian PoWs captured at Stalingrad practiced canniabalism. When Stalin imposed the holodomor, there was cannibalism in the Ukraine. During the Siege, Leningraders who were caught cannibalizing their fellow citizens were shot. There was cannibalism in China during the '30s. Read a book by a GI who worked in the Provost Marshal's Office in Berlin. He walked into a Berlin restaurant's meat locker and saw bodies. Cut off from supplies on their islands, the Japanese resorted to cannibalism. Modernlytoday some satanists also practice cannibalism.

 

One aspect of going for Formosa is that our supply lines would be unusually vulnerable. Amphibious landings and the subsequent ground operations depended on an uninterrupted flow of supplies and reinforcements as well as the ability of unloaded transports, damaged ships, and the like to return to base. Historically there was little threat to traffic between the battle area and the bases from which operations were staged and supported. Although significant Japanese garrisons were bypassed in our island-hopping strategy, they lacked air or sea power to threaten our communications.

Lines of communication to Formosa could be threatened from both north and south, for several hundred miles from the battle zone. Historically our carrier force largely demolished Japanese air power on both Formosa itself and the Philippines, but the bulk of the Japanese navy was still in the south. They might be so helpful as to hurl themselves into a "decisive battle" against our invasion force; a more effective strategy might be to make periodic strikes against our LOCs. From the north, the threat of land-based air staged through the Ryukyus and their small remaining carrier force; again, raids against supply convoys etc. would be more effective than a head-to-head confrontation.

 

Formosa would require a substantial ground force, but it's slightly smaller than Luzon, the conquest of which involved ten Army divisions (the only such campaign in the Pacific war). The Philippines eventually involved sixteen divisions, since MacArthur insisted on liberating them in their entirety.

Formosa would also be beyond the range of most, probably all, land-based aircraft. Land-based air from places like Halmahera was able to support Philippine operations.

 

I'm reminded of the cannibal who arrived late for a dinner party, to be greeted by his host saying "Sorry, everybody's eaten."

 

Many Taiwanese served in the Japanese military, including units that fought in China. Taiwanese troops even participated in the atrocities against Chinese civilians at Nanjing (Nanking) and other places on the mainland. Of the Taiwanese who served in the Japanese military, more than 30,000 were killed in combat.

 

Good point; I was just looking at it from the point of view of advancing across the Pacific. What's the nautical equivalent of "tunnel vision"?

Planes from China, including B-29s of the 20th Air Force, did bomb targets in Formosa and could support an invasion. They could also help suppress Japanese China-based air which could threaten the operation.

 

Not something a country would forget quickly...