The 228 Incident, also known as the 228 Massacre, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947, and was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang (KMT) government. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000 or more.^[1][2] The incident marked the beginning of the Kuomintang's White Terror period in Taiwan, in which thousands more inhabitants vanished, died, or were imprisoned. The number "228" refers to the day the massacre began: February 28, or 02-28.

In 1945, 50 years of Japanese rule ended, and in October the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) handed administrative control of Taiwan as a province^{[citation needed]} to the Kuomintang-administered Republic of China (ROC). A year of KMT administration led to the widespread impression that the party was plagued by nepotism, corruption, and economic failure. Tensions increased between inhabitants and the ROC administration. The flashpoint came on February 27 in Taipei, when a dispute between a cigarette vendor and an officer of the Office of Monopoly triggered civil disorder and open rebellion that lasted for days. The uprising was violently put down by the military of the Republic of China.

The subject was officially taboo for decades. On the anniversary of the event in 1995, President Lee Teng-hui addressed the subject publicly, a first for a Taiwanese head of state. The event is now openly discussed and commemorated as Peace Memorial Day (traditional Chinese: 和平紀念日; simplified Chinese: 和平纪念日; pinyin: hépíng jìniànrì ), and details of the event have become the subject of investigation. Every February 28, the president of the ROC gathers with other officials to ring a commemorative bell in memory of the victims. The president bows to family members of 2-28 victims and gives each one a certificate officially declaring the family innocent of any crime. Monuments and memorial parks to the victims of 2-28 have been erected in a number of Taiwanese cities, including Kaohsiung and Taipei.^[3][4]

Today the National 228 Memorial Museum located at No. 54 Nanhai Road in Taipei memorializes the event. The museum opened February 28, 2011.

Background[link]

Cover of Taiwan Literature Magazine printed during Japanese rule

As settlement for losing the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), the Qing Empire relinquished in perpetuity its claims to Taiwan and Penghu to Japan in 1895. Armed resistance against the Japanese administrators had been largely put down by the 1920s. Subsequently, Taiwanese perceptions of the Japanese rule are significantly more favorable than perceptions in other parts of East Asia, partly because during its 50 years of colonial rule (1895–1945), Japan developed Taiwan's economy and raised the standard of living for most Taiwanese people, building up Taiwan as a supply base for the Japanese main islands. Later, Taiwanese adopted Japanese names and practiced Shinto, while the schools instilled a sense of "Japanese spirit" in students. By the time World War II began, many Taiwanese were proficient in both the Taiwanese, a derivative of the Hokkien language which originated in Fujian province in China, and Japanese languages, while still keeping their unique identity.

Severe inflation due to economic collapse in China led to the issue of currency in denominations of 1 million Taiwan Dollars.

Following the end of World War II, Taiwan was placed under the administrative control of the Republic of China to provide stability until a permanent arrangement could be made. Chen Yi, the Governor-General of Taiwan, arrived on October 24, 1945, and received the last Japanese governor, Ando Rikichi, who signed the document of surrender on the next day and proclaimed the day as Retrocession Day. This takeover also turned out to be legally controversial since Japan did not renounce its sovereignty over Taiwan until the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, which complicated the political status of Taiwan. Although Japan renounced their sovereignty over Taiwan, Sakhalin, Kurile and many other islands in the Treaty, it does not formally state which nations are sovereign over related territories, an issue that some supporters of Taiwan independence use to justify Taiwanese self-determination according to Article 77 of the Charter of the United Nations, which applies trusteeships to "territories which may be detached from enemy states as a result of the Second World War".^[5]

Although the Kuomintang (KMT) liberation troops were initially welcomed by local inhabitants, the KMT administration led to Taiwanese discontent during the immediate postwar period due to large scale economic unrest produced by the Chinese Civil War. As Governor-General, Chen Yi took over and sustained the Japanese system of state monopolies in tobacco, sugar, camphor, tea, paper, chemicals, petroleum refining, Mining, and cement. He confiscated some 500 Japanese-owned factories and mines, and homes of former Japanese residents. Economic mismanagement led to a large black market, runaway inflation and food shortages. Many commodities were sold cheaply and shipped to China for the Civil War shortage where they were sold for profit furthering the general shortage of goods in Taiwan. The price of rice rose to one hundred times its original value between the time the Chinese took over to the spring of 1946. It inflated further to four hundred times the original price by January 1947.^[6] Carpetbaggers from China dominated nearly all industry, political and judicial offices, displacing the Taiwanese who were formerly employed; and many of the ROC garrison troops were highly undisciplined, looting, stealing, and contributing to the overall breakdown of infrastructure and public services.^[7]

Many of the Taiwanese then and even-to-this date viewed the Japanese rule favorably. The colonial system did not allow corruption. Because the Taiwanese elite had met with some success with self government under Japanese rule, they had expected the same system from the incoming ruling Chinese government. However, the Chinese Nationalists opted for a different route, aiming for the centralization of government powers and a reduction in local authority. The KMT's nation-building efforts went this way because of unpleasant experiences with the centrifugal forces during the Warlord Era that had torn the government in China. The different goals of the Chinese Nationalists and the Taiwanese, coupled with cultural and language misunderstandings served to further inflame tensions on both sides. After all, many of the activists just served in the Japanese Imperial system a few months ago. The Japanese lost the war.

Uprising and crackdown[link]

An angry mob storms the Yidingmu police station in Taipei on February 28, 1947

On the evening of February 27, 1947, Tobacco Monopoly Bureau enforcement team in Taipei went to a neighborhood on present-day Nanjing West Road, where they confiscated contraband cigarettes from a 40 year old widow named Lin Jiang-mai . They took her life savings of the non-taxed (illegal) cigarettes. She begged for their return, but one of the agents hit Lin's head with a pistol, prompting the surrounding Taiwanese crowd to challenge the Tobacco Monopoly agents. As they fled one agent fired his gun into the crowd, killing one bystander. The crowd, which had already been harboring many feelings of frustration from unemployment, inflation and corruption of the Nationalist Government, reached its breaking point. The crowd protested to both the police and the gendarmes, but was mostly ignored.

Violence flared the following morning on February 28. Security forces at the Governor-General's Office, armed with Samurai swords, tried to disperse the crowd. Some fired on the protesters who were calling for the arrest and trial of the agents involved in the previous day's shooting, resulting in several deaths.^[8] Formosans took over the administration of the town and military bases on March 4 and forced their way into local radio station to protest.^[9] By evening, martial law had been declared and curfews were enforced by the arrest or shooting of anyone who violated curfew.

For several weeks after the February 28 Incident, the Taiwanese civilians controlled much of Taiwan. The initial riots, similar to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, were spontaneous and somewhat violent. Within a few days the Taiwanese were generally coordinated and organized, and public order in Taiwanese-held areas was upheld by volunteer civilians organized by students, and unemployed former Japanese army soldiers. Local leaders formed a Settlement Committee, which presented the government with a list of 32 Demands for reform of the provincial administration. They demanded, among other things, greater autonomy, free elections, surrender of the ROC Army to the Settlement Committee, and an end to governmental corruption. Motivations among the various Taiwanese groups varied; some demanded greater autonomy within the ROC, while others wanted UN trusteeship or full independence.^[10] The Taiwanese also demanded representation in the forthcoming peace treaty negotiations with Japan, hoping to secure a plebiscite to determine the island's political future.

Outside of Taipei, it was less peaceful. Mainland Chinese also got beat up. Public places like banks and post offices were looted. Some had to flee to Military Police for protection. A few smaller groups formed, including the Communist inspired "27 Brigade" (二七部隊). They looted 3 machine guns, 300 rifles, hand grenades from military arsenals in Taichung and Pingtung. The armed Taiwanese shot or injured ~200 Nationalist Army soldiers which quickly precipitated the house arrest or execution of those who participated in the rebellion.

The Nationalists authorities under Chen Yi stalled for time while assembling a large military force in China in Fujian province. Upon arrival on March 8, the ROC troops launched a crackdown. According to the New York Times on March 29, 1947: "An American who had just arrived in China from Taihoku said that troops from China arrived there on March 7 and indulged in three days of killing. For a time anyone seen on the streets breaking the curfew could be shot at. Homes were broken into and occupants got arrested for questioning. In more isolated sections, such as the Racing Track or Botanical Garden, execution shots were heard.

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By the end of March, Chen Yi had ordered the imprisonment or execution of the leading Taiwanese organizers he could identify. His troops reportedly executed (according to a Taiwanese delegation in Nanjing) between 3,000-4,000 people throughout the island. The exact number is still undetermined as only 300 Taiwanese families applied for another compensation as recently as 1990. Some of the killings were random, while others were systematic. Taiwanese elites were among those targeted, and many of the Taiwanese who had formed self governing groups during the reign of the Japanese were also victims of the 228 Incident. A disproportionate number of the victims were Taiwanese high school students. Many had recently served in the Japanese Army, having volunteered to serve to maintain order. Mainland Chinese civilians who fled often got beat up if not killed by Taiwanese.

The initial 228 purge was followed by repression of "communists" under one-party rule, in what was termed "White Terror", which lasted until the end of 1987. This time coincided with anti-communist fervor in the United States. Thousands of people, including both Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese, were imprisoned or executed for their real or perceived dissent,leaving the Taiwanese victims among them with a deep-seated bitterness towards what they term the Nationalist regime, and by extension, all Chinese not born in Taiwan or anyone supporting the KMT or CCP.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy[link]

Today, a plaque marks the exact spot where the first shot was fired.

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For several decades, it was taboo to openly criticize the 228 Massacre Incident. The government hoped that the execution of Governor Chen Yi and financial compensation for the victims had quelled resentment. In the 1970s the 228 Justice and Peace Movement was initiated by several citizens' groups to ask for a reversal of this policy, and, in 1992, the Executive Yuan promulgated the "February 28 Incident Research Report." Then-President and KMT-chairman Lee Teng-hui, who had participated in the incident and was arrested as an instigator and a Communist sympathizer made a formal apology on behalf of the government in 1995 and declared February 28 a day to commemorate the victims. Among other memorials erected, Taipei New Park was renamed 228 Memorial Park.

Since the lifting of martial law in 1987, the government has set up the 228 Incident Memorial Foundation, a civilian reparations fund supported by public donations for the victims and their families. Many descendants of victims remain unaware that their family members were victims, while many of the families of victims from Mainland China did not know the details of their relatives mistreatment during the riot.^{[citation needed]} Those who have received compensation more than two times are still demanding a trial of the names of the living soldiers who were responsible for death of their loved ones.

Prior to the 228 massacre, many Taiwanese hoped for a greater autonomy from China. The failure of conclusive dialogue with the ROC administration in early March, combined with the feelings of betrayal felt towards the government and China in general are widely believed to have catalyzed today's Taiwan independence movement and subsequently Taiwan Name Rectification Campaign after democratization. Few today hope for the eventual unification of Taiwan to China.

On February 28, 2004, thousands of Taiwanese participated in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally. They formed a 500-kilometer (310 mi) long human chain, from Taiwan's northernmost city to its southern tip, to commemorate the 228 Incident, to call for peace, and to protest the People's Republic of China's deployment of missiles aimed at Taiwan along the coast of Taiwan Strait.

2-28 Incident in art[link]

A number of artists in Taiwan have addressed the subject of the 2-28 Incident since the taboo was lifted on the subject in the early 1990s.^[11] The Incident has been the subject of music by Fan-Long Ko and Tyzen Hsiao and a number of literary works. Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, the first movie dealing with the events, won the Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice Film Festival.^[12]

See also[link]

• History of Taiwan
• History of the Republic of China
• List of massacres in Taiwan
• 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally (in 2004)
• Political status of Taiwan
• White Terror (Taiwan)
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 228 Incident of Taiwan, 1947

• Formosa Betrayed, a political science book by George H. Kerr that offers a Western perspective and interpretation of the 2-28 incident.-Written in 1965
• Formosa Calling, another Western perspective by Allan James Shackleton, B.E., A.M.I.E.E., Written in 1948
• Taipei 228 Memorial Museum
• Collections of US Media Documentations
• Wikimedia Commons: Images Relevant to the 228 Incident
• Reflection on the 228 Event from Taiwan Human Rights InfoNet
• 228 Incident Memorial Foundation
• Bevin Chu, "Taiwan Independence and the 2-28 Incident", AntiWar.com
• Memorandum for the Ambassador on the Situation in Taiwan
• Taiwan Yearbook: History (Government Information Office)
• Declaration of Formosan Human Rights (福爾摩沙住民自決)
• Taipei Times Editorial (自由時報社論): 228 Were International War Crimes Against The Territorial Sovereignty 二二八不是內部鎮壓而是國際罪行 (美國盟軍統帥有責)