Hello brian_h, I am guessing, by taking measure of the Force, that not all Taiwanese feel as your mom supposedly do in regard to Japan
china.scmp.com
Friday, April 8, 2005
Taiwan aborigines demand politician apologise for war shrine visit
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Updated at 4.28pm:
A group of Taiwanese aborigines on Friday condemned a pro-Japan local politician for making a pilgrimage to a controversial Tokyo war shrine and demanded an apology.
The demonstrators shouted slogans and held placards reading “TSU betray Taiwan” and “TSU apologise” to protest the visit to the Yasukuni shrine by Su Chin-chiang, head of the minor Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), an ally of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
They also displayed pictures of Japanese soldiers beheading and abusing the aboriginal people during Japan’s colonisation of the island from 1895 to 1945.
“Su Chin-chiang, you don’t deserve to be a Taiwanese... the TSU doesn’t deserve to be a Taiwanese people’s party,” said aboriginal lawmaker Kao-Chin Su-mei, who organised the protest outside the TSU headquarters.
“If you are a real Taiwanese, join us in a protest outside the Yasukuni shrine in June,” she said.
The protestors later rallied outside the cabinet building demanding Premier Frank Hsieh fire a top official who voiced support for Mr Su.
“Education minister Tu Cheng-sheng step down,” they shouted.
Mr Tu triggered uproars in parliament Wednesday when he said he approved of Mr Su’s war shrine visit.
Leading a TSU delegation, Su Monday visited the Yasukuni shrine which is dedicated to 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted war criminals.
He argued that he was paying tribute to some 28,000 Taiwanese — many of them Taiwanese aborigines forced to join the Japanese military — whose names were enshrined there, not war criminals.
But Mr Su, whose party holds 12 seats in the 225-member parliament, is faced with mounting criticism from the public and legislators over his controversial visit since his return on Tuesday.
A group of former “comfort women” — those forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels during the Second World War II — and women’s rights campaigners have launched a letter-writing campaign to condemn his visit and demand an apology.
“It’s an international joke that Su visited the Yasukuni shrine, which houses the souls of convicted war criminals and is symbol of Japanese militarism,” said Lai Tsai-er, an official at Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation which is organising the campaign.
Mr Lai’s foundation also represents 30 surviving Taiwanese “comfort women,” now in their 80s, who were among an estimated 200,000 Asian women forced by the Japan military to serve as sex slaves during the war.
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