Taiwan Church News

3339 Edition

February 22 - 28, 2016

Headline News

Descendants Of Japanese Victims In 228 Massacre Win The Lawsuit Of Compensation

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

In 2013, Mr Aoyama Keisho, an Okinawa native whose father was a victim of 228 massacre, applied a compensationto the Memorial Foundation of 228 but rejected due to the case as not yet qualified from the point of Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior.

Mr Aoyama did not accept the decision and submitted to Executive Yuan an administrative appeal later. On 8th July 2015, this appeal was again rejected by Executive Yuan.

But Mr Aoyama did not give up, he issued another administrative litigation to the court. Finally, on 17th February 2016,Taipei High Administrative Court(THAC) ruled that Mr Aoyama won this case and should be compensated NT$ 6 millions.

Taiwan Association for Human Rights(TAHR), Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation (TATR) and the lawyers of Mr Aoyama all urged the Ministry of the Interior to accept the ruling and stop pressing the Memorial Foundation of 228 to file the lawsuit further.

Giving his deep appreciation to many supports from Taiwan human rights groups and the lawyer teamwork, Mr Aoyama expressed that this extraordinary ruling is an epoch-making triumph for human rights and justice.

The text of THAC ruling pointed out that the defendant, the Memorial Foundation of 228, should not reject thecompensation claim by Mr Aoyama, since the missing of Mr Aoyama's father - Mr Aoyama Esaki - had already been confirmed by the Foundation which was legally established as an independent organization beyond any political influence. Therefore, citing the explanation letter of the Ministry of the Interior to reject Mr Aoyama's compensation claim for his missing father in 228 massacre was obviously illegal.

Professor Liao Fu-te, TAHR's board executive and a research fellow of Institutum Jurisprudentiae in Academia Sinica, talked in straight that the 228 victims and their families should not be discriminated in the compensation measures of Taiwan's law. Otherwise, the stance of the Ministry of the Interior on Mr Aoyama's case just showcased Ma administration's ignorance and negligence of International Bill of Human Rights!

Translated by Peter Wolfe