Seven decades after the 228 Massacre, survivors and relatives in Taipei city and Taipei county recount their experience and anguish.

By Yang Pi-chuan (楊碧川)

Photography by Pan Hsiao-hsia (潘小俠)

Translation by Aaron Wytze Wilson

This piece originally appeared in The Reporter and is translated with permission of the author and publisher.

On February 28th 1947, at 9:00am, a crowd marched loudly to a police dispatch station in Taihei-cho (太平町), surrounded the dispatch chief and beat him up.

Taipei city dwellers were furious with the Chinese Nationalists’ economic mismanagement and brazen corruption. The breaking point came on February 27th, when a monopoly bureau agent beat a cigarette vendor in broad daylight, and then shot a bystander while trying to escape a tense showdown between gun-toting agents and the public.

One hour later, the crowd marched to a branch of the Taipei Monopoly Bureau in Honmachi-cho (本町). The bureau agents were outnumbered; the crowd severely injured four agents and beat another to death. They burned down cars and cycles, and then the bureau office, which was full of matches, tobacco and alcohol.

At 1:00pm, they were on their way to the Chief Executive’s Office (now the Executive Yuan), but when they arrived, officers fired from the terrace, killing members of the crowd.

Some of the crowd made their way to New Park (now 228 Memorial Peace Park), and at 2:00pm, they occupied the radio broadcast bureau there, and began reporting on-air the turn of events in Taipei; they criticized chief executive Chen Yi (陳儀) for corruption, and giving the people no means of livelihood. At 3:00pm, the Taiwan Garrison Command announced a “temporary martial law”.

Chen Yi was struggling to reassert KMT control. He begrudgingly accepted the formation of a Taiwanese-led committee to investigate the events of February 27-28, but gave notice that the group had to be renamed from the “Cigarette and Murder Investigation Committee” (緝煙血案調查委員會) to the “228 Incident Settlement Committee” (二二八事件處理委員會).

Chen also sent a private message to Taiwan Garrison Command’s secret police chief of staff Ko Yuan-fen (柯遠芬):

“A telegram has already been sent to Chairman Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to mobilize the 21st Division to strengthen troop numbers in Taiwan and pacify the rebellion.”

On March the 2nd, more than a thousand student representatives from Taiwan's higher institutions -- including National Taiwan University, Yanping College and Taiwan Provincial College -- gathered to meet at Zhongshan Hall. They were eager to help the Settlement Committee.

But the KMT looked to exploit the students’ zeal. On March the 3rd, the KMT’s Taipei provisional public security committee instructed Hsu Te-hui (許德輝) to head a special unit, called the “Loyalty Services Unit” (忠義服務隊). Hsu was a “banshan”, a Taiwanese operative loyal to the KMT. He was also involved in the criminal underworld.

The Loyalty Services Unit was tasked with recruiting students to maintain public order, and by all appearances, was in support of the Settlement Committee. But in reality, Hsu was carrying out counter-insurrection activity, and pushed the Taiwanese students to inflame tensions between locals and recent Chinese immigrants.

By March the 4th, things had calmed down in Taipei. But on March the 5th, Chen Yi received a reply from Chiang Kai-shek:

“Chief executive Chen, an infantry group and a military-police group are on their way, and will mobilize from Shanghai on the 7th. Don’t worry.”

On the 6th, the Settlement Committee met at Zhongshan Hall to draft a series of requests for the KMT that would rectify the events of February 27-28. Ong Thiam-teng (王添灯), a prominent local politician and newspaper editor, was the primary drafter of the “32 Demands”, and it was set to be broadcast in five languages: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka Chinese, English and Japanese.

But after the first set of Demands were written up, there were some at Zhongshan Hall who pushed for more radical demands; some suspect KMT agents and agitated students played a role. Chen Yi was furious with the "42 Demands", calling the Settlement Committee “shameless”.

Then, a strange incident occurred on March the 8th. The KMT claimed that a mob from the Taipei suburbs "attacked" the Yuanshan Naval Office, forcing the military to retaliate; more than 100 students ages 18 to 19 were killed. An observer who saw the bodies at the scene said none of the youth were carrying arms or showed signs of battle. Some of the youths were believed to be members of Hsu Te-hui’s Loyalty Services Unit.

Taipei City once again announced martial law on the 9th. Lin Dingli (林頂立) — a banshan who worked for the KMT's military intelligence bureau — received the go ahead to establish the Special Activities Unit (特別行動隊), a Stasi-like state security unit that would handle extrajudicial executions. That afternoon, troops were dispatched to Hsien-kung Temple market (near present day Shenling Temple), where they entered homes and killed indiscriminately.

By the 10th, the 21st Division’s 438th regiment was moving quickly to capture control of the area between Keelung and Taipei. State security officers were instructed to round up “domestic traitors” and secretly arrested members of the Settlement Committee, including Lin Lien-tsung (林連宗), Lee Jui-han (李瑞漢). The next day, they arrested Ong Thiam-teng.

The Taiwan Garrison Command also ordered the People’s Herald (人民導報), the Taiwan Minpao (民報), the Chungwai Daily (中外日報) and other newspapers to close operations.

Members of the general public were not spared the KMT's wrath, either:

Restaurant owner Tu Ma-su (杜媽思) was robbed of all his possessions by soldiers; the same soldiers then returned in the afternoon to kill Tu in the streets. 10-year-old Liao Hsin-ping (廖心平) was also killed by a soldier on the street.

Staff from the Japanese edition of the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News disappeared, and so did Taipei city councillors Ng Tiau-sing (黃朝生) and Chen Wu (陳屋).

Ta Ming Pao (大明報) journalist Ai Lu-sheng (艾璐生) was found dead under Taipei Bridge.

Public prosecutor Ngo Hong-ki (吳鴻麒) was arrested at his high court office.

Chen Peng-yun (陳鵬雲) attended protests during 228, then left the country for a year and seven months to escape prosecution. When he returned in 1950, he was sent to Green Island to perform hard labour for 15 years for his role in organizing train worker unions for the Chinese Communist Party's Taiwan Province Working Committee.

Liao Chin-ping (廖進平) went missing at Bali port after criticizing the police's overbearing behaviour during 228. His son, Liao Te-hsiong (廖德雄) was a student representative for the Settlement Committee, and was also recruited by Hsu Te-hui's Loyalty Services Unit to agitate Chinese and Taiwanese.

Provincial representatives for Tamsui Lin Tzu-shan (李祖山) and Lin Shih-ting (林石定) were executed by gunfire.

The above events can only be a partial list about what happened, because altogether, just too many people suffered.

Taipei