Taiwan earthquake reconstruction forum held on anniversary of 921 earthquake

TAIPEI, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) — A forum on how to rebuild communities in Taiwan and Japan after major earthquakes was held in Nantou County on Saturday, celebrating the close relationship between the two countries in working together on disaster prevention and response since the devastating earthquake that struck central Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999.

The forum was held at National Qi Nan University in Puli Township, Nantou, under the theme of “Resilience-Based Creativity.” A statue and concert were unveiled on Saturday evening, according to a press release issued by the New Homeland Foundation, the event organizer, on the same day.

The Bole-based foundation was founded to promote community building in February 1999, a few months before the 7.3-magnitude earthquake in 1992, according to its website.

The forum brought together a total of 30 speakers, 21 from Taiwan and nine from Japan, to share and exchange lessons learned from the 1921 earthquake, which the foundation described as the deadliest natural disaster in Taiwan's history, and the March 11, 2011, earthquake in Japan, which caused a tsunami and a nuclear power plant meltdown, New Homeland said.

According to official government information, the 921 earthquake killed more than 2,400 people in Taiwan, while the Japanese Reconstruction Agency said that “about 20,000 people lost their lives” in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Former Examination Board Chairman Huang Jung-cun said at the forum that since the 1999 earthquake, Taiwan and Japan have exchanged post-disaster reconstruction experiences for 25 years.

Huang served as the first executive chairman of the 921 Earthquake Disaster Recovery Committee of the Executive Council from 2000 to 2022.

Such exchanges between Taiwan and Japan will continue so that the two countries can build a more resilient future, said Huang, who ended his four-year term as head of the inspection body in August.

Takashi Hattori, deputy representative of the Taipei office of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, also expressed hope that the two countries can continue to work together on disaster-related issues after building a close and valuable relationship over the past 25 years.

To showcase these close ties between Taiwan and Japan, the foundation said it commissioned local sculptor Chang Chia-ming to create an artwork on the theme of “resilience.”

The stonework is primarily made of black granite from South Africa, known to be more durable and strong, to reflect the theme of resilience, the foundation said.

It was decorated with rocks collected from quarries in Hualien County, and butterfly-shaped brass knuckles placed in cracks in the stonework, according to the foundation.

The stonework is displayed in the Paper Dome at Boli, which was originally built in Kobe, Japan, as a temporary replacement for the Takatori Catholic Church that was destroyed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.

The partially paper-made building was donated to Taiwan in 2005, when the Japanese church planned to build a larger venue. The foundation has rebuilt it at its current location in Puli for its expanded role as a community center.

The Dome of Paper has been hosting an exhibition of 11 artists organized by the foundation to commemorate the earthquake since September 12. The exhibition ends on September 30.

(Written by Qing Ya Chen and Kai Liu)

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