The foreign ministry issued a belated comment yesterday on Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni shrine, saying his move hurt the feelings of Japan's neighbors, but stopped short of expressing any protest or regret.
In a mild statement that contrasted starkly with strong protests from South Korea and China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Katharine Chang (張小月) said Koizumi's visit to the controversial shrine, where some war criminals from World War II are commemorated, "undoubtedly hurt the feelings of the people in neighboring countries."
Chang said Koizumi has presumably taken into account opposition from other Asian countries by canceling a visit to the shrine originally scheduled for today, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
To tone down the symbolism of visiting a shrine that to the eyes of some Asians is a monument to Japanese militarism, Koizumi went two days ahead of the anniversary to keep his promise to visit the shrine.
Chang urged Japan to adopt a "forward-looking" vision to promote friendly ties with its neighbors and jointly contribute to the "freedom, democracy, stability as well as prosperity of the Asian region."
When challenged by reporters over the delay in Taiwan's response as well as the "soft tone" of the statement, Chang declined to comment further.
"This is a politically sensitive issue and we've responded to it only after thorough consideration ... Our stance has clearly been stated in the statement," Chang said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Huang Shui-sheng (黃穗生) said his ministry "objected to" Koizumi's visit because the Chinese people paid a terrible price during the eight years of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Vice chairman of the Council for Cultural Affairs Wu Mi-cha (吳密察), in his capacity as a historian at National Taiwan University, urged the government to express its stance to Japan over Koizumi's visit in a manner that was neither "to humble oneself nor to show disrespect" ( 不卑不亢).
Wu lamented that Taiwanese society has either been "going too far" or been "excessively weak" in facing controversial issues related to its former colonial ruler, including new Japanese textbooks that gloss over Tokyo's actions during the war, and the shrine visit.
Koizumi decided to speed up the visit because the plan to go on the anniversary had generated outrage from Japan's neighbors and concern among members of his own ruling coalition.
The last prime minister to go on the anniversary was Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1985. Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto went to Yasukuni on his birthday in July 1996, but the furor abroad was so intense he canceled subsequent visits while in office.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 until 1945. Some of the 35,000 Taiwanese who fought for Japan during the war are worshipped in the shrine, including former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) elder brother Lee Teng-chin (李登欽), who was killed in the Philippines in 1942.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS