The withering of Orchid Island

Recent demonstrations outside the Legislative Yuan by residents of Orchid Island demanding the removal of nuclear waste barrels have once again propelled the often overlooked island to the forefront of the news.

Along with over 100,000 barrels of nuclear waste buried at the island's southernmost tip, Orchid Island, or Lanyu (蘭嶼) as it's known in Chinese, is also home to some 3,200 people. Most of the residents are of Yami ancestry (雅美族) -- a once warrior-like tribe that made its living raiding coastal villages and breaking heads as far a field as Fujian Province.

While legislators and politicians continue to ponder the radioactive dilemma under the glare of the media spotlight, there remains a dearth of solutions to Lanyu's many other long-term problems -- many of which arose long before TaiPower shipped its first barrels of radioactive refuse to the 45.7km2 island in 1982.

Unlike the hands-off approach taken by the Japanese, under whom Lanyu became a research area for native flora and fauna, successive governments in Taiwan have meddled with the island's delicate equilibrium -- meddling that has usually resulted in politicians wishing they could simply sweep Lanyu under the carpet.

"It's always the same. Politicians come here, look around, say some nice words, gawk at the polluted waters and smile," said a rather irate Chou Yi-chung (周義忠), diving instructor and island guide. "They are here, but they're not really here. They only have one eye open the entire time and can't wait to leave. It's all face. They don't really care about the people or the island. This has happened so often that I think sometimes they wish we didn't exist."

With the exception of a naval salvo targeted at one of the island's statuesque off-shore rock formations -- an attack ordered by a shortsighted Japanese naval ensign who mistakenly took the rock for a US battleship -- the mayhem of World War Two passed by the people of Lanyu.

The problems began quite shortly thereafter, however. Six years after Chiang Kai-shek's army fled to Taiwan, the KMT subjected the island's native population to a sinicization program. Scores of recently arrived mainlanders were shipped to Lanyu in a despotic attempt to wrest control of the island from its Yami population.

Needless to say, the idea proved incredibly unpopular with the locals who resented the government's assumption that interracial marriages would lead to peace, love and understanding. What the program led to instead was years of drunken brawls and racial hatred.

"When my father came here, there was a lot of resentment towards the program," recalled Chou Hai-an (周海安), a life-long Lanyu resident of mixed parentage and proprietor of one of the island's few restaurants.

"But when you think about it, recently arrived mainlanders who were sent to Lanyu such as my father had quite a lot in common with the native population in the sense that both were considered outcasts. After all that's why they were sent here."

Anti-Central Government sentiment increased in 1966, when the government passed a decree that ordered the islanders to dismantle their traditional underground homes and build concrete housing instead. The program lasted for over 20 years and it wasn't until 1980 that the Central Government reversed the decree and the Yami were once again free to choose their style of abode.