Taipei, Taiwan – The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday apologized for posting a photograph showing students wearing Nazi uniforms during a MND-organized summer camp on its official website, a move that angered local Israelis.
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In an emergency press conference held in the ministry yesterday afternoon, military spokesman Lo Shao-ho made an official apology over the incident to the public.
Lo said he had contacted the three students in question, and they all expressed regret for wearing the Nazi uniforms while attending the summer camp held on Monday at Army Armor School in Hsinchu County.
“They said they wore the uniforms for fun as they are all military fans,” said Lo, adding that they didn’t mean to offend anyone and that they are sorry for causing the stir.
He also added that the ministry will ask its press officers to be more careful in the future when choosing photographs.
Lo made the comment after a local Chinese-language United Evening News ran a story yesterday accusing that the MND-posted photo nearly caused political row between Taiwan and Israel.
According to the report, the military personnel responsible for receiving these students for the summer camp not only did not ask them to take off their uniforms, they even took a photograph with them and later posted it at the official site of the Military News Agency.
The photograph was pulled off the site after the controversy broke out.
When asked to comment on the incident, Simona Halperin, director of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, the de facto Israeli representative in Taiwan as both sides lack official ties, said she was shocked and sad to see the photograph, the report said.
She said the MND’s move only shows it’s ignorant of the sensitivity of the issue. She hopes it does not represent that the ministry’s support of the Nazi massacre of Jews, the report said.
Halperin continued to point out that the controversy also shows that Taiwan should teach their students at the secondary education level about such issues so they may better understand their significance.
Is there anything that they don’t make in Taiwan?
Taiwan is a true democracy and a friend of Israel and the Jews.
This unfortunate incident is similar to the Jan 13, 2005 incident when Prince Harry of England dressed as a nazi soldier at a costume party.
I’m sure the people in question learned their lesson and you won’t see any more pictures of Taiwanese in nazi uniforms.
Apologies be damned – the chinese are not the first to issue them over an offensive “slip up” of some sort; nobody means them, they are just being politically correct and after the fact. We are alone, Israel is alone, and they’d get rid of us all if they could and believed they could get away with it. Even our so-called allies are full of hooey.
One doesn’t have to go to Taiwan or to the UK to see this nonsense. From time to time, in the official newsletter of the Jewish War Veterans, there are souvenir collectors who advertise that they either have for sale or are seeking Nazi war memorabilia, or Japanese war souvenirs, such as Japanese swords. Such advertising should be prohibited, but it continues, since it brings in revenue for the respective publications.
the chinese suffered tremendous abuse ,torture and death under japanese occupation ,during ww2. you’d think they’d know better.
I think that they are apologizing for posting the photos, not actually wearing them!