Taiwan publishes Chiang Kai-shek's diaries for 'social reconciliation and progress'

Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Taiwan published the diaries of former Republic of China leader Chiang Kai-shek as a form of "social reconciliation and progress" following a protracted legal battle for their return from the United States.

The seven-volume collection chronicles Kai-shek's life from his first term as president and the period during which he retreated to Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, after the Chinese Civil War, according to the South China Morning Post.

The diaries cover periods that include a 1947 massacre ordered by Kai-shek that was considered a critical impetus for Taiwan's independence movement. During Taiwan's "white terror," tens of thousands of people who opposed his regime were imprisoned or executed.

Academia Historica museum President Chen Yi-shen said the diaries will give a greater understanding of the time. He encouraged readers to view the diaries within historical context.

In September, Academia Historica received volumes of diaries kept by Kai-shek and his son, former President Chiang Ching-kuo.

The diaries had been held at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University since 2005, where they were "the most requested items by researchers" because they "contain decades of valuable political and foreign policy insights of these historic Taiwanese leaders."

"Scholars using the diaries have revised and expanded the understanding of modern China, the Cold War, and global history in ways that were not possible before they were available," The Hoover Institute said.

Ching-kuo's diaries are expected to be published in late 2023 and the remainder of his father's are slated for publication in 2024.