Taiwan: Where Japanese Go to Feel at Home on Vacation

choi

Kaori Shoji , Taiwan: Where Japanese Go to Feel at Home on Vacation. Japan Times, Mar 18, 2017.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life ... feel-home-vacation/

Quote:

"when Chiang Kai-shek moved into Taipei on the heels of the Japanese surrender, one of the first things he did was restore this structure [台湾総督府, now 総統府]— which had been bombed by the Allies but was still standing — to its former glory. * * * many old Japanese buildings in Taiwan are still in use, and they stand as a testament to Japanese architecture from a time when Japan was trying to catch up to the West and hybrid was the name of the game in heavy industry, engineering and architecture. Similar examples [of buildings from that era] in Tokyo are rare, but in Taipei, pieces of Japanese history have survived the war as well as the tides of time.

"Japanese culture is so ubiquitous [in Taiwan], in fact, that Taiwan can seem a bit like a parallel universe. Compare [Taiwan and Okinawa, where local people are still bitter about mainland Japanese, for the former sufferings toward the end of World War II]

"In Asia, it's very rare for a Japanese to be on the receiving end of such benevolence [which ordinary Taiwanese confer on Japanese].

Note:
(a)
(i) Kaori SHŌJI  庄司 かおりis a frequent contributor to Japan Times.
(ii) Japanese-English dictionary:
* kaori 香り 【かおり】
* nisshiki 日式
   ^ shiki 式 【しき】 (n): "style"

(b) GOTŌ Shinpei 後藤 新平

A Physician by training (having graduated from the predecessor of the present-day national 名古屋大学医学部), Goto was 民政長官 (1898-1906) under Governor-General of Taiwan (army general) KODAMA Gentarō 兒玉 源太郎.
(c)  " 'Your Name' broke box office records across Taiwan, selling more tickets than 'Ring,' another beloved Japanese movie."

Ring (film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(film)
(1998; a Japanese horror film)
(d) "the late Taiwanese artist and filmmaker Edward Yang 楊德昌 [1947-2007 (died after 'a seven-year struggle with colon cancer': en.wikipedia.org] once said to me in an interview"

(e) "Youki Tsunoda, 32, who works for a Japanese electronics manufacturer, is a recent Taiwan transplant. His firm, which was based in Kumamoto, transferred Tsunoda to their Tainan factory"
(i) The Japanese surname Tsunoda 角田.
(ii) In Japanese, the same kanji 角 has various pronunciations corresponding to definitions (as a noun), such as angle (pronounced "kaku" as in ３角形), corner (of a desk or a street, pronounced "kado") and horn ("tsuno").  On ly "kaku" is Chinese pronunciation (an dthe last two are Japanese pronunciations.)