Japanese students yesterday placed flowers at the base of a statue of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in Kaohsiung in an act of friendship between Japan and Taiwan.
The statue, which was unveiled in September last year, is displayed in a garden of remembrance created by Hongmaogang’s (紅毛港) Baoan Temple (保安堂) in Kaohsiung’s Fengshan District (鳳山) in memory of him.
The 21 Japanese students are recipients of a scholarship to study in Taiwan provided by the Friends of Shinzo Abe Association in Taiwan with the money left from the funds it raised to purchase an advertisement in Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun in July.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
Donations from 175 Taiwanese businesses, groups and individuals contributed to fundraising that paid tribute to the longest-serving prime minister in modern Japan, who was fatally shot during a campaign rally on July 8 last year, the association said.
Yeh Chien-yang (葉建揚), the association’s founder, said it selected 25 students from about 50 applicants for the scholarship, but four of them were unable to join the trip.
The scholarship provides an opportunity for students to travel to Taiwan and see how people recall Abe fondly, and to further cement the friendship between Taiwan and Japan, he said.
The students, aged from 18 to 30, visited Baoan Temple, the Kaohsiung City Government and the city council yesterday.
The temple is the only place that worships Japanese navy officers in Taiwan, temple president Chang Chi-hsiung (張吉雄) said.
Haruka Yoshinaka, who is studying at the Graduate Institute of Business Administration at National Taiwan University (NTU), started learning Mandarin when she was a sophomore and speaks fluently.
After making friends at international exchange activities at her university, she said she found that Taiwanese are passionate and tolerant, adding that she would like to live in Taiwan after she graduates.
The statue moved her, she said, adding that Abe’s death was shocking, but she was thankful to see Taiwan doing so much for him.
Abe helped promote the sale of Taiwanese pineapples, and said that “a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency,” Yoshinaka said.
He arranged vaccine donations to help Taiwan with COVID-19 prevention efforts, she said, adding that she would like to follow in his footsteps and continue his efforts.
Naohiko Nakayama, a senior student in the Department of Political Science at NTU, said he was surprised to see a statue of Abe in a foreign country, and was moved by Taiwan’s love for Japan and Abe.
Having met the former prime minister in person twice, he said that “the charm and posture of the statue are very similar to Abe.”
Asked whether Japan is considering where to erect a statue of Abe, he said that it would provoke heated public debate, as Abe’s state funeral was a highly debated affair.
The parliamentary delegation from Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party that visited Taiwan last month showed Japanese lawmakers’ support for the nation, he added.
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