Tainan Mayor William Lai said Monday the recent beheading of a statue of Japanese civil engineer Yoichi Hatta does not undermine ties between Taiwan and Japan but strengthens them.

"The vandalism did not succeed because this year's ceremony is even bigger than ever," Lai said at an annual ceremony to commemorate Hatta at a park in Tainan, southern Taiwan. The park was commissioned in 2011 to honor Hatta's contributions to Taiwan.

(Image provided by police in Tainan) 

The act of vandalism occurred three weeks ago when the statue was allegedly decapitated by a radical pro-unification activist, who does not agree with the historic treatment of Hatta. He was questioned by police but later released.

Hatta was stationed in Taiwan from 1910 to 1942, during which time he oversaw construction of the Chianan Canal and Wushantou Reservoir in the south as key components of a massive irrigation system in the Chianan Plain, one of many infrastructure projects Japan implemented to modernize Taiwan during its 50-year occupation that ended in 1945.

At the commemorative event, which Hatta's grandson attended, Lai said he sees Hatta not only as a citizen of Tainan but also a good friend and dear family member.

"We thank him and respect him from the bottom of our hearts," the mayor said, adding that nothing can undermine the unique bond between Taiwan and Japan.

The statue was replaced by a replica provided by Chimei Museum. The museum cast a model of the head of Hatta's statue when it was first made in 1931 and created three bronze busts, one of which it kept.

The grandson, Shuichi Hatta, said he was shocked by the incident and grateful the statue had been repaired in less than two weeks.

"I wanted to come and see with my own eyes the friendship between Japan and Taiwan," he said at the event, which about 700 people attended. He has attended the annual ceremony since 2007.

The vandalism occurred amid a string of similar incidents targeting statues of the founding father of the Republic of China Sun Yat-sen and late dictator Chiang Kai-shek.

Chiang, Taiwan's first president who was also head of the Nationalist Party (KMT), ruled Taiwan for nearly 25 years. His son and the KMT continued to rule the island for another 25 years before losing power to the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in 2000.

While radical activists justified their actions by likening Chiang's authoritarian rule of the island to that of the Japanese colonizers, Lai said Hatta did no harm to Taiwan but instead helped lay the groundwork for the island's current prosperity.

Hatta was killed in an Allied submarine attack on a ship transporting him to the Philippines in 1942. Distraught by his death, his wife jumped to her death from atop the reservoir he built that would bring prosperity to the once-poor area.

During the ceremony, separate groups of pro-unification and pro-independence activists staged protests outside the park.

Holding a banner that read "We must not forget the historic fact that the Japanese slaughtered the Taiwanese," the pro-unification group chanted "Japanese, get out!"

Only a few meters away, about 50 pro-independence activists chanted "Taiwan and China, two countries on either side of the Taiwan Strait."

Describing Hatta as a hero of Taiwan, the leader of the group, Free Taiwan Party Chairman Tsay Ting-kuei, said it was difficult for those who identify themselves with China to understand why many Taiwanese honor Japanese people who made great contributions to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period.