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.”
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
WASHED ASHORE: Of the 16 bodies discovered along Taiwan’s west coast this month, two were Vietnamese and five were Taiwanese, coast guard officials said Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that he has instructed prosecutors and maritime authorities to launch investigations after 16 bodies were found along Taiwan’s west coast this month, amid speculation that they were victims of smuggling or human trafficking rings. Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officials said the bodies, most of which had washed ashore, were found by coast guard personnel and local residents along the coastline from Keelung to Kaohsiung. Thirteen of the bodies are male and three are female, the CGA said, adding that items found on the bodies indicate that two of the men were Vietnamese, while three men
RSS