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Japan¡¦s Mori plants 200 trees as
tsunami memento
Staff Writer, with CNA
Former Japanese prime minister
Yoshiro Mori, left, and Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai plant a tree at the
Hatta Yoichi Memorial at Wushantou Reservoir in Greater Tainan yesterday.
Photo: Yang Chin-Chehg, Taipei Times
Hundreds of people joined former Japanese
prime minister Yoshiro Mori in planting cherry trees in Greater Tainan yesterday
in a gesture to thank Taiwan for its assistance following a massive earthquake
and tsunami that battered Japan last year.
Mori, leading a group of 170 Japanese nationals, joined local officials in
planting the first batch of 200 cherry trees at the Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park
at an event dubbed kizuna, a Japanese word meaning ¡§bond,¡¨ to mark the close
ties between Japan and Taiwan.
The park is named after a Japanese engineer who built a canal that helped
irrigate southern Taiwan in the early 1900s.
Mori and Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (¿à²M¼w) plowed the soil before planting
young trees that were grown by grafting a tree species native to Japan onto one
indigenous to Taiwan, which the event initiator said symbolized the inseparable
bond between the two countries.
Mori said he had planned a trip to Taiwan in May to mark the anniversary of
Hatta¡¦s death but decided to squeeze in another visit after hearing about the
tree-planting event, so he could personally express Japan¡¦s gratitude to Taiwan
for its ¢D20 billion (US$247 million) in post-disaster donations.
¡§Taiwan and Japan have been close friends, and hopefully we can be even closer
through this event,¡¨ said Mori, who also unveiled a monument nearby and wrote
kizuna and the Japanese word for ¡§cherry blossom¡¨ on it.
The views were echoed by Lai, who said the planting of Japan¡¦s national flower ¡X
the cherry blossom ¡X had strengthened the friendship between Taiwan and Japan.
Yang Ming-feng (·¨©ú·), chief of a local agriculture and water development agency,
said the agency would work to turn the tree-planting site into one of Taiwan¡¦s
largest cherry blossom parks.
The event organizer, a Japanese sports association, had said previously that it
planned to plant a total of 5,000 cherry trees in several stages.
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