ID :
20708
Tue, 09/23/2008 - 12:13
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/20708
The shortlink copeid
Ex-Taiwan President Lee offers flowers to war dead in Okinawa+
NAHA, Japan, Sept. 22 Kyodo - Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui offered flowers to the war dead at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, one of the locations of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, on Monday on the first day of his four-day visit to Japan's southernmost island prefecture.
''I paid my sincere respects to people killed in war and to Taiwanese
victims,'' Lee, 85, told reporters at the park. ''I'm surprised by Okinawa's
development after the war (World War II).''
It is Lee's fourth visit to Japan since he stepped down as president in 2000.
Lee previously visited Japan three times -- in 2001, from late 2004 through
early 2005 and in 2007.
Those visits drew protests from China, which regards Lee as a ''separatist''
because of his outspoken assertion that Taiwan is an independent, sovereign
state.
China, which calls Taiwan a renegade province, is paying close attention to
Lee's activities in Okinawa during his stay through Thursday, according to
sources close to Japan-China relations.
This is Lee's first visit to Okinawa, which is geographically closer to Taiwan
than to Japan's main islands.
On Tuesday, Lee is scheduled to deliver a lecture in Ginowan city on Japanese
culture, with topics inspired by ''Gakumon no susume'' (an encouragement of
learning), a book written by Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901), the founder of Keio
University in Tokyo.
Media reports in Taiwan said John Feng, Taiwan's newly appointed representative
in Japan, saw Lee off at Taoyuan airport outside Taipei.
Feng is expected to assume the presidency of the Taipei Economic and Cultural
Representative Office, Taiwan's de facto embassy in Tokyo in the absence of
diplomatic ties.
At Okinawa's Naha airport, a smiling Lee waved to some 60 supporters who
greeted him.
Japan-educated Lee was Taiwan's first directly elected president, serving from
1988 to 2000 while he was with the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT). Lee left the
KMT after stepping down as president.
Japan switched diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 1972.
During his previous visit to Japan in June 2007, Lee visited Tokyo's
war-related Yasukuni Shrine to honor his elder brother, who died in World War
II while serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy when Taiwan was under Japanese
colonial rule.
China regards Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals are honored, as a
symbol of Japanese militarism before and during the war.
==Kyodo
''I paid my sincere respects to people killed in war and to Taiwanese
victims,'' Lee, 85, told reporters at the park. ''I'm surprised by Okinawa's
development after the war (World War II).''
It is Lee's fourth visit to Japan since he stepped down as president in 2000.
Lee previously visited Japan three times -- in 2001, from late 2004 through
early 2005 and in 2007.
Those visits drew protests from China, which regards Lee as a ''separatist''
because of his outspoken assertion that Taiwan is an independent, sovereign
state.
China, which calls Taiwan a renegade province, is paying close attention to
Lee's activities in Okinawa during his stay through Thursday, according to
sources close to Japan-China relations.
This is Lee's first visit to Okinawa, which is geographically closer to Taiwan
than to Japan's main islands.
On Tuesday, Lee is scheduled to deliver a lecture in Ginowan city on Japanese
culture, with topics inspired by ''Gakumon no susume'' (an encouragement of
learning), a book written by Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901), the founder of Keio
University in Tokyo.
Media reports in Taiwan said John Feng, Taiwan's newly appointed representative
in Japan, saw Lee off at Taoyuan airport outside Taipei.
Feng is expected to assume the presidency of the Taipei Economic and Cultural
Representative Office, Taiwan's de facto embassy in Tokyo in the absence of
diplomatic ties.
At Okinawa's Naha airport, a smiling Lee waved to some 60 supporters who
greeted him.
Japan-educated Lee was Taiwan's first directly elected president, serving from
1988 to 2000 while he was with the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT). Lee left the
KMT after stepping down as president.
Japan switched diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 1972.
During his previous visit to Japan in June 2007, Lee visited Tokyo's
war-related Yasukuni Shrine to honor his elder brother, who died in World War
II while serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy when Taiwan was under Japanese
colonial rule.
China regards Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals are honored, as a
symbol of Japanese militarism before and during the war.
==Kyodo
