Elia Yeh of Taipei grew up reading Japanese comic books, with their hair-raising adventure tales and sweet teen love stories. By the time she reached middle school, she was a fan of all things Japanese.
Japan happens to be Taiwan's former colonizer of 50 years. But Yeh's story is the story of modern Taiwan.
Whereas Japan left a painful legacy in many of its former colonies, including mainland China and the Korean peninsula, it is generally admired in Taiwan, which it ruledwith a somewhat lighter touchfrom 1895 until 1945, when it surrendered to end World War II.
Yeh's admiration for Japan followed her into adulthood. Now a 28-year-old high school teacher, she reads Japanese novels instead of cartoons. She has traveled three times to Japan, once mainly to see a free art exhibit at a university campus in Tokyo. She eats Japanese food at least twice a month at one of the five restaurants that serve it within half a mile of her apartment.
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg ... story.html
with a somewhat lighter touch
wrong
there is basically nothing different between japans ruling in taiwan and korean peninsula and manchuria.
the difference between the 3 is the way to handle the memory by their government in the post-war, as you do know.