Taiwan Vice President Lai Ching-te, a candidate in next year's presidential election, hailed the contributions of Japanese civil engineer Yoichi Hatta in the colonial era at a memorial ceremony on Monday.

At an event in Tainan, southern Taiwan, to commemorate Yoichi Hatta (1886-1942), Lai said the Wushantou Reservoir, the construction of which was overseen by the engineer, serves as a basis for the emotional connection between the people of Japan and Taiwan.

That connection continues to grow as both sides are "willing to stand together against the expansion of authoritarianism for regional peace and stability," Lai said.

Hatta was also in charge of the construction of the Chianan Canal in the island's southwestern Chianan Plain from 1920. The canal, which took 10 years to build, served as a crucial component in a massive irrigation system, one of many infrastructure projects Japan implemented to modernize Taiwan during its 50-year occupation, which ended in 1945.

The engineer's works not only greatly contributed to agriculture but also to the development of commerce and industry, Lai said, adding chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. also uses water from Wushantou Reservoir.

Lai, a former Tainan mayor, also thanked former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his pro-Taiwan stance and for bringing up the concept that any emergency surrounding Taiwan would also be an emergency for Japan.

"Actually many Taiwanese people also think that a Japan emergency is an emergency for Taiwan," Lai said. In July last year, he attended the funeral of Abe, who was shot dead by a lone gunman during a campaign speech.

Shuichi Hatta, Yoichi Hatta's eldest grandson, attended Monday's ceremony and thanked Taiwan for continuing to honor his grandfather's legacy.

Born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Yoichi Hatta was stationed in Taiwan from 1910 to 1942, serving as a hydraulic engineer for the Japanese government. He was killed in an Allied submarine attack on a ship transporting him to the Philippines on May 8, 1942.

Yoichi Hatta has long been held in high esteem by many people in Taiwan, and a memorial park in Tainan was commissioned in 2011 to honor his contributions to Taiwan's development.

==Kyodo

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