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.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS