Retrocession Day

Retrocession Day (光復節) is an annual observance in Taiwan to commemorate the end of 50 years of Japanese colonial rule on October 25, 1945.

Chen Yi (right) accepting the surrender of General Rikichi Andō (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in Taipei City Hall.

Celebrating Taiwan's retrocession following Japan's defeat in WW2.

Taiwan, then more commonly known as Formosa, became a colony of the Empire of Japan when Qing China lost the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and ceded the island with the signing of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. Taiwan under Japanese rule lasted till the end of World War II.

When the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II, General Rikichi Andō (安藤利吉), governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed an instrument of surrender and handed it over to General Chen Yi (陳儀) of the Kuomintang military to complete the official turnover in Taipei on October 25, 1945. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Retrocession Day of Taiwan". Taiwan has been governed by the Republic of China since.

Retrocession Day is currently not an official public holiday in the Republic of China, yet popular memorial activities are held and families hang the national flag every year on this day.