Su Beng (史明), who died on Friday, lived a very long life. His 100 years encompassed a fascinating journey that personifies the sorrow of Taiwan, its people being oppressed in one way or another, but through it all, he never stopped fighting, and whether or not one agrees with his independence ideals, he gave his all for his beloved homeland.
Born when Taiwan was a Japanese colony, Su’s fight began in China when he worked as a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agent in Shanghai in the early 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War after graduating from Japan’s Waseda University. He believed that fighting against the Japanese on the front lines was the best way to rid Taiwan of colonialism.
