2-28

Memorial plaque on Green Island, a former penal colony:

In that era,

How many mothers

Wept through the nights

For their children imprisoned on this island?”

Exactly 65 years ago, began a terrible tragedy in Taiwan's modern history. A scuffle broke out in downtown Taipei when policemen confiscated contraband cigarettes sold by a simple lady trying to make a living. The police fired into the crowd and killed many people. A mob gathered. More people were killed. Martial Law was declared, and Taiwan descended into chaos as the military ran amuck all over the island, shooting people, arresting people. 28 February 1947 (2-28)marked the beginning of the massacre of tens of thousands of Taiwanese people, and the beginning of close to forty years of Martial Law.

It was not just a simple scuffle caused by the  confiscation of contraband cigarettes. Taiwan, a part of the Japanese Empire prior to WWII, was delivered to the Chinese Nationalist government under trust. It was commonly agreed that a more permanent solution to the status of Taiwan would be sought after the dust has settled. The Chinese Nationalists came with their administrators and army, took political control and nationalised all assets. Fighting a Civil War against the Communist Chinese, they plundered Taiwan and shipped everything to China to sustain their war efforts. Inflation was rampant on the island, so was crime, disease and lawlessness-- all these social ills did not exist under the Japanese colonisation. As a saying goes at the time: "The Americans were merciful on the Japanese. They only dropped the atomic bomb on them. They dropped the Chinese on us". 

Social injustice was brewing, for Taiwanese people were treated like second-class citizens in their own homes. Many Taiwanese could read and write, many studied in Japan and had university degrees. The influx of Chinese Nationalists saw these people as "traitors" and "Japanese lackeys" and stripped them of their professional positions. The Chinese soldiers came and took everything valuable. They were uneducated, rude, and spoke a foreign language, Mandarin Chinese, which the vast majority of people at the time did not understand at all. My grandparents were Japanese citizens, grew up speaking Taiwanese and Japanese. These foreign Chinese people suddenly arrived in their homeland and were parading the streets like they were the overlords.

The events leading up to the scuffle on the streets of Taipei, and which spread to other cities throughout the island on 2-28 was an accumulation of pent up anger and frustration. Colonised by the Japanese, and now the Chinese came... what happened to the idea of self-determination that the world was so fond of in all former colonies? The Chinese Nationalist government made a mess of the economy, and corruption was rampant. Taiwanese professionals were sacked and replaced by 'people who happened to know people'. 2-28 was the result of racial tensions and ill feelings between the colonised and colonisers. And the latter responded with brutal force.

My aunt told me at the time of the event, she was around five years old. The square in front of the train station in Chiayi ran red with blood. The square was a public execution site. That was just one city. In dozens of other cities, people were rounded up and shot. Others were dragged from their homes and never heard from again. The Chinese Nationalist government used the excuse that these were "Communists" and that these people were rebelling. Most of the victims were doctors, lawyers, politicians, people who had influence in the local community; people who posed a threat to the new regime. Terror reigned throughout the island and for four decades, a period commonly known as the White Terror...

All things Taiwanese was suppressed. The language was forbidden, and speaking Taiwanese would be subject to a fine in school. Taiwanese music was banned, Taiwanese theatre prohibited, Taiwanese history erased, to be replaced by all things Chinese. Chinese and the idea of a great China was promoted and propogandised in the media and schools. People were brainwashed into believing that we are all part of China, and that the Communists which took over on the "Mainland" were cruel bandits that needed to be ousted. But the reality was that the Chinese Nationalist were no less cruel, were no less inhumane and oppressive.

Throughout the decades of terror, many people were executed without a fair trial, and many more were imprisoned and forced into hard "labour reform". Talk of democracy was criminal, talk of Taiwan and independence was poisonous and treasonous. Many democracy activists  are now members of the opposition party, and many had their fair share of time languishing in prisons. Only until 1987 did Martial Law end and the democratisation wave begin. It was a bloodless coup and opening process, which eventually led to parliamentary and later presidential elections. Elections that till this day, some two decades after Taiwan began democratic, are held up as an example for other Asian countries to follow.

2-28 is a public holiday, and many forget the significance of this date in Taiwan's history. The Chinese Nationalist Party, which perpetrated the genocide against Taiwanese people are now back in power. Taiwan. There are those in the Chinese Nationalist Party who even deny tens of thousands were killed. In Germany, to deny the Holocaust is a crime, but in Taiwan the perpetrator of the gravest offence against citizens, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek ("Cash my Cheque" as the Americans liked to call him, for he was so corrupt...) can still be seen on coins and his name is used as  street names in cities around the island.

 2-28 is not a day to remember old grudges and open wounds. It is a day to remind ourselves of where we came from, what sacrifices were made by our predecessors, and also to remember that the government was once a cruel, oppressive apparatus that did not blink to shoot down tens of thousands of its own people. We must be vigilant against the return of oppression and be wary of attempts to deliver this country and its people into the hands of yet another foreign regime. Taiwan's democracy was won through decades of struggle, and many died or suffered at the hands of tyranny  for claiming the very liberties and freedoms we so take for granted today.

2-28 is not just a holiday. It is a day to remember...