tipeitimesニュース（Japan’s Mori plants 200 trees as tsunami memento）

今日は、森前首相が台湾で植樹したニュースです。

Japan’s Mori plants 200 trees as tsunami memento

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 (賴清德) 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 ￥20 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 — the cherry blossom — had strengthened the friendship between Taiwan and Japan. Yang Ming-feng (楊明風), 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.

｢単語｣

memento；形見、記念の品

Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park；八田与一記念公園

dub；～と称する

plow；耕す

graft；接木する

indigenous；固有の、原種の

inseparable；分離できない

squeeze；強引に、無理に

｢一言」

八田与一さんは、台湾で有名な日本偉人の一人です。

日本では、エンジニアが尊敬の対象となることは稀ですが、

台湾では、エンジニアのことを工程士と呼び、

尊敬の対象となる職種のひとつです。

技術により現実的な利益が出ることを、重視しているってことだと思います。