Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Japanese reconnects with his Taiwan roots

Taipei Times

Kazuya Shimizu yesterday hugs Mika Tanaka, the lady who helped him locate his place of birth in Hualien County.
Photo: Yang Yi-chung, Taipei Times

Born in Taiwan, but forced to leave his home after Japan lost World War II, Kazuya Shimizu yesterday finally realized his dream of revisiting the site of the village in Hualien County where he was born.

The 70-year-old Shimizu is a wansei, the Japanese term used to describe someone born or who grew up in Taiwan and is a descendant of Japanese immigrants who had come to Taiwan during the Japanese occupation from 1895 to 1945.

Ex-US official to examine A-bian’s prison conditions

Taipei Times

Former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark, a long-time advocate for Taiwan’s democratization, is scheduled to arrive today on a two-day visit and is due to visit former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to get a better grasp on the conditions of his confinement and reportedly deteriorating health.

The former US official made the trip at the invitation of former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) amid growing concerns both in Taiwan and abroad over the state Chen’s health as well as his human rights.

Japanese raise flags on Diaoyutais

Taipei Times

Japanese nationalists wave Japan’s national flag yesterday in front of a lighthouse on a disputed island group known as the Diaoyutai Islands in Chinese and the Senkaku Islands in Japanese.
Photo: AFP

Nationalists raised Japanese flags on an island at the heart of a corrosive territorial row with China yesterday, in a move likely to further inflame tensions with Beijing.

About a dozen members of the right-wing group Gambare Nippon (“Hang In There, Japan”) swam ashore, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist witnessed, from a 20-boat flotilla carrying activists and lawmakers.

Chen cleared of telling aides to lie during probe

Taipei Times

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was found not guilty by the Taiwan High Court yesterday of directing his aides to give false testimony to prosecutors who were probing his alleged misuse of a special state affairs fund.

The High Court ruling overturned one handed down by the Taipei District Court in July last year, in which Chen was sentenced to two months in jail on charges of urging Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) and Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓) — who headed Chen’s office at different times during his two terms as president from 2000 to 2008 — to make untrue statements.

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