Taiwan Tower (Okinawa Peace Memorial Park)

The Taiwan Tower (台灣之塔, Taiwan no Tō) stands on Mabuni Hill in the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park, Itoman City, Okinawa Prefecture. Unveiled on 25 June 2016, it is dedicated to the memory of the approximately 30,000 Taiwanese who perished while serving in the Japanese Imperial military during the Asia-Pacific War (1937–1945).

Mabuni Hill (摩文仁の丘) is one of the most significant war memorial sites in Japan. It was here, in late June 1945, that the Japanese 32nd Army made its final stand during the Battle of Okinawa, and the hill has since become a forest of memorial towers — roughly 50 monuments erected by individual Japanese prefectures, foreign nations, and military units to honour their respective war dead.

The construction of the Taiwan Tower was initiated by the Japan-Taiwan Peace Foundation (日本台灣平和基金會), founded by Okinawa-resident Taiwanese Hsu Kuang-hui (許光輝), on land provided free of charge by the Okinawa Yokuyūkai within the grounds of its Kūge-no-Tō; the foundation sought to create a permanent memorial for Taiwanese war dead on Okinawan soil, where many had fallen. Between 1937 and 1945, 207,183 Taiwanese served in the Japanese military, with 30,304 killed or missing in action. The number of Taiwanese who died specifically in the Battle of Okinawa has never been systematically established, and only 34 Taiwanese names have been identified on the nearby Cornerstone of Peace (平和の礎).

The monument carries the signature line "President Tsai Ing-wen" (總統蔡英文), making it one of the few overseas war memorials bearing the name of a Taiwanese head of state; press accounts differ on how the signature came to be added, one reporting that it was carved without her explicit consent. The stone monument stands in a small garden area.

The tower sparked controversy in Taiwan. Critics argued that it effectively paid tribute to Japanese militarism and that the presidential inscription was inappropriate given that the 30,000 Taiwanese dead had been conscripted — many against their will — by a colonial power. Supporters countered that the memorial honoured the individual sacrifice of Taiwanese victims regardless of the political context of their service, and that the absence of any such monument for seven decades after the war's end constituted a historical injustice.

The Taiwan Tower sits within the precinct of the Kūge-no-Tō (空華之塔), a memorial to Japanese aviators, and within walking distance of the Cornerstone of Peace. Together with the War and Peace Memorial Park in Kaohsiung and the Takasago Volunteers Memorial in Wulai, it forms part of a small but significant network of sites that preserve the memory of Taiwan's complicated wartime past.