Braving strong winds, rain and waves pounding the shore, officials and residents from Keelung and Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture yesterday jointly unveiled a statue of an Okinawan fisherman with cheers, music and words of friendship to commemorate Okinawans who died during the 228 Incident.
The ceremony started with a Buddhist rite, hosted by the head monk from Seikoji Temple in Okinawa, at Wanshantang — a small temple with urns containing bones and ashes of people of unknown identity or those who died without descendants — near the monument on Keelung’s Heping Island (和平島), which is just off Taiwan proper.
Bodies of Okinawan fishermen, including more than 30 of them who were killed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops in the 228 Incident, were buried at Wanshantang.
Photo: Loa Iok-sin, Taipei Times
The 228 Incident refers to the large-scale uprising across the island in 1947 against the KMT regime, which was put down in a violent crackdown.
“We’ve always heard that some of our ancestors are here in Keelung and the people of the city have always remembered them in religious rites,” the monk said. “We’re holding a religious rite and have erected a monument here to comfort the spirits of our ancestors.”
“Meanwhile, we would also like to express our gratitude to the people of Keelung,” the monk added.
Chou Chen-tsai (周振才), a board member of the 228 Care Association, said that from about 1905 to the end of World War II, as many as 500 fishermen from Okinawa, whose former name was Ryukyu, had settled on Heping Island, forming a “Ryukyu village” there, and lived side by side with Taiwanese.
Many Okinawan fishermen stayed after the end of the war and some were killed during the massacre in 1947.
“That there were Okinawan victims of the 228 Incident are not known among the public, but we’ve always heard about it from locals. So, around eight years ago, organizations of the 228 Incident and historians launched a research project in both Taiwan and Okinawa and have confirmed it as fact,” Chou said.
“That’s why we’re erecting a monument here, not only to remember the deceased, but also to remind the public about the forgotten history,” Chou added.
The religious rite was followed by a ceremony to unveil the monument by Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) and Toshihiko Simoji, mayor of Miyakojima City in Okinawa Prefecture, where many of the Okinawan fishermen who settled on Heping Island came from.
The mayors thanked each other for their help in erecting the statue and expressed the hope that the monument would help to enhance exchanges between the two cities, which were quite frequent before 1945.
Many Okinawans whose ancestors had once lived on Heping Island also attended the ceremony — among them was Shiosei Yashumoto, whose great-uncle, Chouzou Uchima, lived on Heping Island from 1905 to 1945, and was the model for the fisherman statue.
“My great uncle lived in Taiwan from 1905 to 1945. He was a good friend of Taiwanese, he taught them some fishing techniques unique to Okinawa and gave his Taiwanese friends fish during wartime when the [Japanese colonial] government prohibited selling fish to the Taiwanese,” Yashumoto said through a translator. “He was even arrested for that, but he was released by arguing that he didn’t ‘sell’ the fish, rather, people took it from him for free.”
ATTACKED: The patrol cutter, accompanied by two other vessels, was clearing illegal fishing nets when the fishing boats rammed it. Repairs are expected to cost NT$1.2m Taiwan’s newest Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessel was damaged after being rammed by Chinese fishing boats near Kinmen County. It was the second confrontation this month in which shots were fired to repel Chinese fishing boats. Chen Chien-wen (陳建文), chief of the coast guard’s Offshore Flotilla No. 9 unit for Kinmen County, said that on Monday a dozen Chinese fishing boats entered Taiwan’s territorial waters near Little Kinmen (小金門), also known as Lieyu (烈嶼), close to the coast of China’s Fujian Province. “We are happy to report that no coast guard personnel were hurt in the incident, but the new CGA
Each local government must implement disease prevention policies based on its own considerations, so they cannot be identical, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said yesterday. Her remarks were in response to questions about why Taipei did not follow New Taipei City in closing all public sports centers, activity centers and museums for 14 days, starting on Friday. New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) made the sudden announcement to close those areas at the opening of a public sports center on Thursday to reduce gatherings of people in confined spaces and to prevent the spread of COVID-19, as a person confirmed
ADEQUATE COVERAGE: New Taipei City, which has more than 9,500 people under home quarantine, said it would add another 450 rooms at its disease prevention hotels The Taipei City Government has added a fourth designated disease prevention hotel, allowing people under 14-day home quarantine to isolate themselves from NT$5,000 per day, it said yesterday. The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism launched the first disease prevention hotel on Feb. 21 to accommodate travelers without a place to stay during mandatory home isolation or quarantine, and for people who want to separate themselves from their family members or roommates during quarantine. The department said that as of yesterday, more than 120 travelers have stayed at one of the city’s three disease prevention hotels, and their 178 rooms are nearly
MISINFORMATION: The 100,000 masks given to ally Paraguay were bought in other Latin American nations, not made in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan has not yet reached a point where it can export masks to diplomatic allies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, dismissing as misinformation online reports that it gave away masks to curry favor with a diplomatic ally. “Taiwan provides med-ical aid to diplomatic allies based upon specific circumstances,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said, adding that the supplements donated by Taiwan were all purchased locally in allied countries, in accordance with their needs. “The time is not yet ripe” for Taiwan to export medical supplies, such as surgical masks, to diplomatic allies, until
RSS