Flying Eagle Woman Fund Hosts the Taiwan
Aboriginal Protest Delegation to the UN

Article and photos by Steve Cowley © 2005 FEWF & Tapwe Production Projects

New York, NY (September 22, 2005)

(Left) Parliament Member Kao Chin Su-Mei addressing demonstrators in Taiwan

During the round of addresses and press conferences the Flying Eagle Woman Fund hosted a special luncheon at the American Indian Community House, in honor of Parliament Member Kao Chin Su-Mei and the Aboriginal Taiwanese Delegation. This side event featured a lunch served by FEWF and AICH staff as well as an exchange of gifts (giveaway) between FEWF and the Delegation.

(Right) More Gifts for FEWF and the AICH

As quoted in their press statement issued by the delegation “This visit [with FEWF and AICH] would fulfill the Aboriginal Taiwanese people’s wish to meet with the American Indian community, our indigenous brothers and sisters on Turtle Island. The luncheon will be one such opportunity for this group to introduce ourselves to the Indigenous community of the world. Again, we hope to see many of you there, offering your support with your presence as we journey towards justice.” As many in the group speak little or no English, it was learned through an interpreter, that for Su-Mei and her group, this was their first time to the US and only the second time outside their native Taiwan.

(Left) Fran Grumbly, Kao Chin Su-Mein , Ali El-Issa and Julian, the Delegation's translator
(Right) From FEWF to
the Delegation, a Dana Tiger signed lithograph

Earlier in June of this year Japanese security prevented Chin Su-Mei’s delegation, the “Return the Souls of Forebearers” group, from even leaving their bus for a scheduled protest in front of the Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine. The Shrine lists 2.5 million war dead, including war criminals, as well as the indigenous Taiwanese forced to serve during the war. It is estimated that 20,000 indigenous Taiwanese were drafted by Japan during World War II. Only a third returned home.

To date, there has been no formal or official apology from Japan.

 

We Want To Tell The World Japan Shirks Its Historical Responsibility   During the giveaway portion of the luncheon, the delegates offered several copies of a small book as gifts detailing their protest.  “We Want To Tell The World – Japan Shirks Its Historical Responsibility” - Taiwan Aboriginal Protest Delegation to The United Nations.   The booklet’s summarized English translation demands that Japan ‘Face Up to History! Show true remorse! Apologize and compensate!’ for wartime crimes during 50 years following Japan’s invasion of Taiwan in 1895. The Japanese colonial regime is accused of having committed heinous crimes of planned state violence against Taiwan’s Aborigines:   Violent annexation and occupation of Taiwan (Formosa). Seizure of Aboriginal lands under the guise of nationalization. Suppression of Aboriginal tribes with a policy of “kill all, seize all, burn all”. Exclusion of Aborigines from the legal system. Forcible subjection of Aborigines to police rule. Forcible suppression of Aboriginal culture. Enslavement of Aborigines through forced labor. Sexual enslavement of Aboriginal women.   The book also declares that the Second World War ended 60 years ago, but that the violence Japanese militarists inflicted on Taiwan’s Aborigines has not ceased. The “fallen combatants of the Takasago Volunteers” were forcibly conscripted by the colonial regime to die as ‘cannon fodder on the battlefield,’ but today their souls must still suffer the indignity of having their memorial tablets placed alongside those of Class-A war criminals in the Yasukuni Shrine!   By putting the victims and the perpetrators together in the same place, the Japanese militarists are using the Yasukuni Shrine to perpetually enslave Aborigine’s souls. In recent years, Japanese extreme right-wing groups have been using the lure of free trips to solicit Taiwanese Aborigines to visit the Yasukuni Shrine. The purpose of this trickery is to deny Japan’s historical guilt and to falsely portray Taiwanese Aborigines as “Pro-Japanese”.   The charismatic independent lawmaker, Chin Su-Mei and her delegation have been requesting rigorously to Japanese government officials to have indigenous Taiwanese’s names and the tablets removed from the Shrine’s enshrinement list, calling it an insult to their people.   The delegation’s planned schedule includes a press conference at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New York; and an opening, at the Sheraton LaGaurdia East Hotel, of the historical photographs of Japanese atrocities. Also planned was an address of protest to Japan at the (New York) Consulate General of Japan and a press conference. The group was then scheduled for travel to Pennsylvania for another press conference in Philadelphia, ‘the city of brotherly love.’   From Philadelphia, a small group of the delegates will travel to Osaka, Japan, to visit anti-Yasukuni Shrine organizations… but travel, for most of them, will be on the journey back home.