A Tale of Two Earthquakes
How the friendship between Taiwan and Japan was forged through mutual generosity and gratitude
“Is Taiwan OK?” “It’s our turn to help!” Japanese netizens expressed strong concern after Taiwan’s earthquake on Wednesday. Since then there’s been a torrent of donations and kind wishes from the Land of the Rising Sun to the Island of Boba. Various businesses founded their own drives, and now it’s even possible to give at convenience stores. “This is to return the favor to Taiwan,” said MS&AD Insurance Group, one of the businesses raising funds for Taiwan’s earthquake victims.
What the Japanese mean by “returning the favor” is the fact that in the wake of 2011’s Tohoku earthquake and tsunami event, Taiwan behaved with incredible generosity and alacrity. All together, the Taiwanese donated more than 20 billion yen for relief, making it the top country in terms of donations. For many ordinary Japanese citizens, it was the first time they realized that they had a pro-Japanese neighbor.
The official response from the Japanese government at first was silence. Back in 2011, Japan hewed carefully to China’s insistence on the “One China Policy” and what it means. But the lack of acknowledgement was called out at the Diet on September 11th, 2011. Opposition lawmaker Yoshihisa Furukawa said:
“Taiwan gave enormous sums in donations to Japan after the earthquake. But Japan, because it is mindful of the reactions of a third party, never truly thanked Taiwan sincerely. We Japanese are not ungrateful cowards.”
Furukawa’s challenged spurred then then-Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to officially thank Taiwan on the floor of the Diet.
In the decade-plus since then, Taiwan and Japan’s friendly relations have accelerated to the point where former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said “a crisis for Taiwan is a crisis for Japan.” While the tea-leaves reading continue on how much such a proclamation by a former prime minister can really translate into action, what is indubitable is that the Taiwanese-Japanese friendship, both diplomatically, militarily and on a people-to-people basis have been transformed to a level difficult to foresee from 2011.
What’s interesting is that the Taiwanese people were equally generous to the people of China when it was devastated by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, if not more so. Donations from Taiwan totaled 1.52RMB. If you do the conversions, it’s a little bit over the 20 billion Yen the Taiwanese would give to Japanese a few years later. But instead of being celebrated and creating a bridge for mutual goodwill and understanding, that act of generosity was cruelly erased.
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Sichuan quakes, Sina News thanked countries from around the world for their donations to earthquake relief. The United Arab Emirates came in top of the list which you can see in the graphics above, even though the Taiwanese donated four times as much. How is that possible? Taiwanese donations are completely missing from the graphic as China doesn’t acknowledge Taiwan as a country.
I am not naive enough to think that all the world’s problems can be solved by heartwarming stories of generosity and kindness, but I do believe that the foundation of any kind of successful diplomatic relations is the exchange of goodwill. When that exchange is cut off, there can be no trust or meaningful collaboration. In a parallel universe where China is decent enough to acknowledge the Taiwanese for their contributions and aren’t menacing Taiwan with military threats, perhaps the people of Taiwan won’t be so keen to disavow Chinese identity.
While the exchange of goodwill between Taiwan and China withers, Taiwan has done a good job of cultivating such virtuous cycles with countries around the world. I believe that those connections will matter more and more as the world becomes increasingly precarious for Taiwan.
I was struck and touched by the generosity of Taiwan, both for Japan and for China during their earthquakes referred to. And kudos to that Japanese legislator for standing up for Taiwan. And the gov’t reaction to that. The way you presented the aftermath to the Sichuan earthquake, from Taiwan and China was important to note as contrast. Generosity given and acknowledged always improves relationships, whether between individuals or governments. Hopefully they can learn by example.