JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: Taiwan – Our Ally, Our Friend

By Jim “Pappy” Moore

The American Little League baseball Championship team just defeated the Taiwan team to win the Little League World Championship Series this past week. It is a momentous win for the American team. Taiwan loves baseball and it has been a powerhouse in Little League Baseball for over fifty years. 

Many of you know of my love for Taiwan. I was based there in Taipei in the years 1970-1971. Taipei is about the size of Houston, and is sprawling like Houston. 

I lived in a three-bedroom apartment I rented for $65 a month. It was brand new. It overlooked a plush green field where four crops a year were grown and harvested. On my way to and from my base, I would pass a field where boys Little League age would play ball regularly. It was then I came to know their love and dedication for the game.

Later, I would learn that American teams were suspicious of some of the players Taiwan would have. Some seemed too big for their age group, and the regularity with which they won was troubling for Americans. Taiwan has won the Little League World Series 17 times and Japan has won the title 11 times. That is how consistently strong the Taiwan and Japan teams have been.

Taiwan is America’s most important ally in Asia. It is an island sitting 100 miles off the coast of China. It has been under self-rule since 1949 and remains the home of strong pro-American people. They make many of the components we use in electronics, including countless chips. 

Taiwan developed as an island well offshore from China, and that gave it a certain amount of freedom from China. However, when European ships came to travel regularly to the region, sailors from Portugal soon dubbed it “Formosa” and Europe called it that for hundreds of years thereafter. It was still being called Formosa when John F. Kennedy was president.

Taiwan remained under China’s rule until 1895, when Japan took over the island and imposed its rule. That maintained until the end of World War II, when Japan abandoned Taiwan in the face of the United States and Australia’s advances. The liberation of Taiwan was supposed to bring independence to Taiwan, but China reasserted itself and the Allies acquiesced. Four years later, in 1949, the pro-western government of General Chiang Kai-shek fled mainland China to Taiwan, bringing with it two million Chinese. The island thus became the home of a Chinese rule, but with most of the population Taiwanese. It would evolve to have democratic ideals and home rule.

Taiwan is a beautiful island country, rising up out of the Pacific. It is about two hundred miles long and one hundred miles wide at its widest point. It looks like a tobacco leaf. With over 500 miles of ocean frontage, it rises into a mountain range which boasts dozens of peaks above 10,000 feet. It is truly a wonderful place to see, with awesome people who genuinely care for their relationship with America. 

There are indigenous people who still live in the mountains, and they trace their lineage in Taiwan thousands of years. They are much like other indigenous people of the Pacific, with numerous tattoos and a look not Chinese. 

Taiwan, like South Korea and Japan, are strong U.S. Allies and they are important to our presence in the region, along with the Philippines and Okinawa. Show them your love.

Copyright 2024, Jim “Pappy” Moore. All rights reserved.