Aboriginal activists and academics yesterday slammed Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) for acting arbitrarily and without respect for history after a court overturned a county government decision to demolish a monument to “Takasago” soldiers in the Japanese army.
“Takasago volunteers” refer to Taiwanese Aborigines drafted by the Japanese colonial government in the 1940s to serve in the Imperial Army in Southeast Asia.
No one knows exactly how many people were drafted, but the commonly accepted estimate is around 30,000.
To commemorate their ancestors who died as Takasago volunteers, Atayal Aborigines in Wulai Township (烏來), Taipei County, formed a Takasago Volunteer Memorial Association to build a group of monuments to the soldiers in 1992. The monuments were later moved to another location in Wulai in 2006.
Because the plaques on the monuments were written in Japanese and the Atayal soldiers were described as brave men, the Chinese-language China Times ran a story in February 2006 criticizing the monuments for praising Japanese imperialism.
Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), who is half Atayal, also condemned the monuments and the Taipei County Government quickly tore most of them down despite protests from local Atayals.
Afterward, Atayal activists filed a lawsuit against the county government. That was three years ago.
The Taipei High Administrative Court on Tuesday handed down its final ruling, which overturned the county government’s decision to demolish the monuments. The court made the decision based on the fact that the Takasago Volunteers Memorial Foundation had completed the legal procedure required by the county government to construct the monuments and that the county government did not hold public hearings before ordering the demolition.
“The whole incident happened because of the manipulation of two politicians and a malicious media group,” Wu Rwei-ren (吳叡人), an assistant research fellow in Taiwanese history at Academia Sinica, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
“I want to tell Chou Hsi-wei that issues relating to different ethnic groups — especially minorities — are very sensitive,” Wu said.
Wu said that while Chou, a descendant of Mainlanders who escaped to Taiwan after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party, considered the Japanese to be enemies because of their invasion of China, “many people born in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period have a different memory and impression of the Japanese.”
“You should always respect other people if they have a completely different memory of history,” he said. “Only outside colonialists would try to practice forced assimilation.”
Hsueh Chin-feng (薛欽峰), the lawyer representing the Takasago memorial group, said that they would ask for compensation and restoration of the monuments.
A Hualien pomelo farmer refused to sell to China after the country announced it would permit more Taiwanese pomelo imports, prompting widespread support from Taiwanese consumers, who rallied to buy his fruit. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said that China’s General Administration of Customs registered an additional 79 Taiwanese pomelo orchards and packing facilities in Hualien County, allowing more Taiwanese producers to export pomelos to China. “I am a Hualien fruit farmer and I refuse to sell to China,” Liu Tzu-hao (劉子豪) from Ruisui Township (瑞穗) said in an online post. Liu is a well-known farmer in the community and has served
A Chinese military drone was spotted conducting reconnaissance off Taitung County as President William Lai (賴清德) visited Pingtung County this morning to inspect a drill of the armed forces’ precision-strike capabilities, prompting the military to closely monitor its actions. Today was the final day of a three-day military exercise at Jioupeng Base (九鵬基地) to test the joint combat capabilities of the armed forces and coast guard. The exercise began on Wednesday simulating air defense interception and yesterday tested long-range strike capabilities and new air defense weapons. This morning, the military conducted a final exercise involving air defense, anti-ship and drone operations. Military sources said
OCT. 31: The antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Eraflu have been distributed to about 4,000 medical facilities nationwide for people in seven groups who develop flu-like symptoms As the domestic influenza epidemic enters its peak season and continues to escalate, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday announced that publicly funded influenza antiviral drugs for seven eligible groups have been extended to Oct. 31, allowing those who develop flu-like symptoms to receive the medication without undergoing a rapid influenza test. The CDC has extended the expanded use of flu antiviral drugs to seven groups: healthcare and influenza-prevention personnel; residents and staff at nursing homes, long-term care facilities and similar institutions; kindergarten and daycare workers and home-based caregivers; students from kindergarten through high school, vocational high school and the
Taiwanese Tsai Chin-shu (蔡金樹), who had been imprisoned in China for engaging in activity that “endangers national security,” said on Facebook on Friday that he has returned to Taiwan. Tsai, chairman of the Southern Taiwan Union of Cross-strait Relations Associations, had traveled frequently between Taiwan and China for years, and at one time ran a trading company in China’s Pingtan. In July 2018, he traveled to Quanzhou, Fujian Province, to attend a cross-strait food trade fair and stayed at a hotel in Xiamen. He checked out the following day and then disappeared. His family had made repeated appeals to the authorities
RSS