Taiwan Commemorates 60th Anniversary of "228"

Commemorative events are being held this week throughout Taiwan for what has come to be known as The "228 Incident." On February 28, 1947, the arrest of a cigarette vendor in Taipei led to large-scale protests by the native Taiwanese against the corruption and repression of Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist government, which had come over from China after Japan's defeat by the Allied forces in 1945. Following the protests, troops that Chiang's government secretly sent from mainland China rounded up and executed an entire generation of leading figures, including students, lawyers, and doctors. Scholars estimate that up to 28,000 people lost their lives in the turmoil. During the "White Terror" of the subsequent years, the Nationalists ruled Taiwan under martial law, which ended only when democratization set in during the mid-1980s. The "228 Incident" remains a defining event in the political divide that exists in Taiwan today. Today, the majority of Taiwanese youth are unaware of these events do to historical revisionism on the part of the Nationalist party. For the first time this year Taiwanese school history text books will include explanations about "228."