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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| September 26, 2003 |
Keelung, Taiwan |
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| The charismatic Mr. Fuu, providing a touch of unexpected culture shock due to his familiarity with Japan and the Japanese people |
As we headed from the port city of Keelung to Taipei, through rolling hills alternating between green nature and rapid development, our guide Mr. Fuu became the human link between us, as visitors from Japan, and Japan's colonial history in Taiwan. With the fluent Japanese he'd been forced to learn in Taiwan's education system until 1945, he explained with sharp humor and insight how he quietly chose to maintain, through smuggled Japanese books and lonely studies, the language most others at the time chose to let slip from memory.
Mr. Fuu also shared an increasingly rare sentiment we'd not expected to encounter during our day-long study tour - that of the narrow generation of people who still believed that, despite colonialism, the period of Japanese rule contributed to development and stability, only to be followed by a serious downturn in conditions once the island reverted to mainland Chinese rule between 1945 and 1949. |
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| Downtown Taiwan, which bears many similarities to downtown Tokyo |
Taiwan's is close to Japan yet little understood (other than in terms of shopping and cheap travel) by many Japanese people. Our goal was therefore, to learn about the continuation of historical connection between Taiwan and Japan from the colonial period to the present, as well as to build links with local civil society organizations. Guiding us was onboard guest speaker Professor Tetsuji Marukawa, Professor of Politics at Meiji University and a specialist on Taiwan and Chinese languages, who also viewed his own countries colonial history with much less sympathy than our guide Mr. Fuu. |
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| Outside the Sotofu Government building |
The first half of our visit took us to the current government building, 'Sotofu', built by the Japanese between 1912 and 1919. While an interesting look at the recent political history of the island, the focus remained at the government level, and a number of participants noticed a lack of representation of the conditions of people during the period. Also, the view of Japan's colonialism seen by many as sympathetic, in spite of the irreparable division it created between Taiwan and the mainland drew comment from Professor Marukawa that this was a narrow and one-sided perspective. |
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| Passing through the 'Taipei 228 Memorial Museum' |
We quickly moved through busy, scooter-clogged streets to the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum, established in 1997 to commemorate the massacre of between 10,000 and 20,000 Taiwanese by mainland forces 1947. On February 28th, 1947, police harassment of an old peddler woman selling contraband cigarettes provoked protests and riots, unleashing long-building tension between the Taiwanese people and mainland Chinese government. The ensuing massacre, designed to suppress the protests and riots only made deeper the growing rift between the two peoples, who separated soon after in 1949. After a tour of the museum, we listened to stories by family members of those killed, some with direct memory of losing their parents, others as young people now carrying the history told by their parents. The process of telling and listening, served to allow each one of us present to share in the human side of the conflict far more personally than any facts can convey. The end result was that it helped us build connection with human history of Taiwan before us. |
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| An artist's representation of the massacre by mainland Chinese troops requested by the Taipei governor to suppress the protests and riots |
Our talk moved directly from the past to the future through accounts of the work of young people in building alternatives to the system of mandatory military service in Taiwan. The Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan exists to promote the idea that forced military service on individuals is against human rights and principles of peace, and to provide alternatives which promote civil society awareness, involvement and support. The group of four members speaking to us included members with two different perspectives, those who'd opted for alternative service and those who served in the military and now wanted to support a growing peace initiative. |
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| In group discussion with members of the 'Peacetime Foundation Taiwan', comparing perspectives on the military by young people from Japan and Taiwan |
While the relationship of the Taiwanese and Japanese militaries and their respective civilian populations is quite different (Japan has no conscription and a relatively low visibility in society in contrast to Taiwan whose military), Peace Boat participants and members of the Peacetime Foundation Taiwan developed a close bond in the short time they were together, though the common experience of working towards East-Asian security through the development of a civil society based on peace and cooperation rather than military power. With our goal of building the connections between people working for peace in East Asia, we drove back to Keelung under a setting sun knowing we'd helped make one more strong link within East-Asian civil society. With much anticipation we departed for our next stop of Danang, Vietnam.
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