A cosplay event held on Friday saw Hsinchu Kuang Fu High School students carrying swastika banners and wearing Nazi uniforms, as a result Cheng Hsiao-ming stepped down as principal.
The former principal apologized for letting the event happen under his watch in his letter of resignation, and said that the school would be releasing a list of officials responsible for the event, including Liu Hsi-cheng, the homeroom teacher.
The list will not include the names of students who took part in the parade. School administrative duties will now fall to Huang Duen-huang, who was already slated to replace Cheng as principal in February 2017.
Cheng said that the school will address the incident by educating students on the horrors inflicted by the Nazi regime and the pain that symbols like the swastika can cause its victims and their descendants.
The school will bring in officials from the Israel Economic and Culture Office, and show students films centered around the Holocaust, including Life Is Beautiful and Schindler’s List.
The Israel Economic and Culture Office posted a statement to Facebook following the incident, saying, "It is deplorable and shocking that seven decades only after the world had witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, a high-school in Taiwan is supporting such an outrageous action as we witnessed yesterday at Hsinchu Kuang-Fu Senior High School."
According to Liu, an Arab-themed parade was originally suggested, but, after two rounds of voting, students settled on the Nazi theme. He wanted to respect their decision, but warned them that this would be a controversial topic. Liu regrets not vetoing the students’ decision.
Photographs posted to Professional Technology Temple, an online academic bulletin board in Taiwan, show students wearing red armbands on their school uniforms while one student sits atop a tank giving a Nazi salute.
The Taipei Times quotes a statement from the country’s Presidential Office calling the parade "disappointing" and "regrettable." "We feel it is extremely disrespectful to the Jewish people who had been victims of the oppression perpetrated during wars, but more importantly, it highlighted ignorance about history…The responsibility of an education facility is to teach students that peace and diversity did not come easily. The freedom of thinking should be based on justice and respect, rather than misconduct," it said.
The office added, "Education authorities should require the school to shoulder responsibility by seriously reflecting on the incident, understand and improve education in related fields of study and apologize to the countries it offended."
