A group of nine Taiwanese Aboriginal veterans recruited by the Japanese colonial administration during World War II petitioned yesterday to the Executive Yuan's Council of Aboriginal Affairs (CAA) for assistance in requesting compensation from Japan.
They also hoped that their story would not be forgotten, and urged the building of monuments and incorporation of their tribulations in school history textbooks.
"We were forced to battle overseas, but when we came back to Taiwan, we just found the government and our nationality changed [from Japanese to Chinese]," said the petitioners. "We hope our story will be written in memory of the dead."
During World War II, the Japanese colonial government recruited around 4,000 Taiwanese Aborigines -- who were called the Aboriginal Volunteer Army (
The Japanese recruited Aborigines in order to take advantage of their ability to act as scouts for Japanese soldiers in jungles and mountains which were considered to be similar to their home environment in Taiwan's mountains.
"We were recruited as army laborers, but in fact we worked as real soldiers with Japanese soldiers at the front," said an Aboriginal veteran. "We should have the same compensation as Japanese veterans."
The colonial government recruited over 400,000 Taiwanese and Koreans to work as army laborers during the war. Only the Japanese, though, were considered soldiers.
The Japanese government passed legislation to compensate veterans from the former colonies in 1987. The application period was from 1988 to 1994. The compensation was around ?2 million per death.
According to Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare, of the 30,304 Taiwanese army laborers who died, the families of 29,645 of them have applied for compensation. The other 659 people are Aboriginals. The petitioners said Aborigines living in mountainous areas had no way to get hold of this information and hence missed the application closing date.
Cheng Deng-shan (
"Their families did not have any evidence to ask for the compensation," Cheng said.
"The negotiations are expected to take some time and all of us are very old. We hope the government can appropriate some funds for us and then get it back from Japan," said Cheng.
Petitioners also asked the government to help take Aboriginal funeral tablets placed in the Yasukuni Jinjya (
"It's a matter of historical justice," the CAA's chairman Yohani Isqaqavut (尤哈尼) said to the petitioners, and "the Council will stand by you."
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique