Why wasn't Japan allowed to keep Taiwan after WW2? (Short Animated Documentary)

After the Second World War was over and Japan had surrendered, its imperial holdings, both new and old, were taken away from it and either given to its neighbors, returned to their former colonial owners, or given independence.

One part of Japan's empire that was taken away from it was Formosa, known nowadays as Taiwan, which was occupied then quickly annexed by the Republic of China in 1945. Now, Japan had won the island from China in 1895, and the Chinese were desperate to get it back.

Well, not all of them. There were those in China who didn't lay claim to the island and considered taking it to be little more than an act of imperialism.

And whilst Britain and the United States did approve of it returning to China in 1943, how much they meant it is up for debate. Yet, to the surprise of the Americans, Taiwan was immediately annexed, and it would soon become a centrally important part of Chinese history. But given some of the Allied

misgivings surrounding China's ownership, why was it just allowed? Why was Taiwan given to China and the Japanese forced to give it up? So, as you all know, historically, China and Japan didn't have a good relationship, with numerous Imperial Chinese dynasties attempting to force Japan's submission

militarily and diplomatically. And Japan in 1894, after its modernizing reforms, launched an invasion of Korea, a Chinese puppet state at the time. The Japanese were swiftly victorious and managed to pry Korea from China's control, alongside seizing Formosa and the surrounding islands, too. They did try

to take this as well, but some of the great powers at the time were furious at what they saw as Japanese overreach, and so forced them to abandon it. Anyway, these gains were internationally recognized, and Japan's prestige grew.

It intervened in China with the Western powers during the Boxer Rebellion, and in 1904, the Japanese came to blows with the Russians and were again victorious, gaining this in the following peace treaty and cementing Japan's place as a great power. In World War I, the Japanese gained all of this from

Germany, and at this point Tokyo's leaders realized that they were really good at this whole empire-building stuff, and so obviously, they would soon want more. And more they would get, with Japan prying this major chunk of territory from the Republic of China in the 1930s and establishing a puppet

state there run by China's last deposed emperor. Now, the two states wouldn't magically repair their relationship, and in 1937, war kicked off again. In 1941, to cut down on paperwork, Japan decided to merge this conflict with the ongoing Second World War by attacking the US and as you'll all be fully

aware, it ended very poorly for the Japanese. So, in 1943, as the war raged on, China, the US, and Britain met in Cairo. And there, they would decide on how best to prosecute the war against Japan and who would get what in the event of Japan's defeat. And during this meeting, the Americans promised Chiang

Kai-shek, China's premier, the return of Manchuria and Taiwan. This might sound like a done deal, but at the time, the primary concern for the United States was keeping China in the war. Hence why Roosevelt even hinted at giving China Okinawa and the surrounding islands. And as such, they were willing to promise