Continuing her outcry against Japan's attitude on its actions in World War II, Aboriginal Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) yesterday said that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's public expression of remorse Friday was not enough "by far" to make up for the country's grievances.
"If the Japanese government was sincerely apologetic, then I would like to ask them about how they treated our Taiwanese comfort women when they went to Japan to seek compensation," Chin said at a press conference yesterday, saying that the apology was not enough.
"We are asking for the traditional Japanese apology; but how to apologize? Japanese people have told me the traditional apology involves kowtowing," said feminist lawyer Wang Ching-feng (
Japanese aggression in World War II in Southeast Asia became front-page news this month when massive anti-Japanese rallies broke out in China to protest Tokyo's approval of a new history textbook that critics say downplays Japan's wartime atrocities.
In an attempt to smooth the increasingly rocky relations between his country and China, Koizumi apologized for his country's actions in World War II during remarks at a summit of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta Wednesday.
comfort women
Both Wang and Chin yesterday referred to violence done to Taiwanese Aboriginals during Japan's 50-year occupation of Taiwan, and Japan's refusal earlier this year to compensate seven Taiwanese who had been forced to be comfort women during World War II.
In response to Koizumi's statement and Chin's response, Voyu Yakumangana of the Tsou tribe, executive director of the Association for Taiwan Indigenous People's Policies, said yesterday that while the Japanese prime minister's statement is a "positive" development, he finds it lacks true meaning.
"[Koizumi's] statement is a positive development, but it should have been made long ago. It is a friendly gesture, but I personally do not think it has any concrete significance," Voyu said yesterday.
compensation
The amount of compensation Japan pays to its wartime victims and its actions, rather than words, are more important, said Voyu.
Despite Chin's vocal protests and demonstrations against Japan's attitude, Voyu said that such disgruntlement is not necessarily representative of the Aboriginal community in Taiwan.
"The Aboriginal community is very diverse. There are some, like Chin, who remember the Japanese a certain way. However, there are also many Aboriginal elders that remember the period of Japanese colonial rule fondly," Voyu said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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