On this 60th remembrance, what happened on February 28th, 1947 is generally called an “incident” but I think it is a minimization, considering its scope and its profound long-lasting ramification.  I would submit it is more proper to call it a “general uprising”, a “full-scale revolt” against KMT rule.

 In 1945 under MacArthur’s order, the Chinese army arrived in Taiwan.  They are welcome with extreme enthusiasm.  People are almost ecstatic, but soon it turned into shock, outrage and despair because those people conducted themselves not as liberator but rather as rogues or roguish conquerors.  Pillage, robbery, rape and the government’s incredible incompetence and corruption.  In two years by 1947, those like myself who lived through this period clearly saw the situation had reached the boiling point.  We were sitting on the top of a powder mill which would explode anytime.  And it did.  The small incident involving the cigarette seller served as only a spark to ignite this explosion.  All this happened without prior preparation, without any organization, without any leadership.

 Japan ruled Taiwan for 50 years.  In 1895 when the Japanese Army arrived, there was a disorganized and ineffective opposition to Japan, but after that, for 50 years, there was no large-scale opposition to Japanese rule, only small sporadic incidents mainly in the aboriginal area.  But it took only two years for KMT rule to make the whole island rising up against KMT rule.  This fact says a great deal about the nature of KMT rule in Taiwan.  The result was 28,000 massacred.  Those killings meant several things.  First, at that time, the population in Taiwan was about six million.  So that means everyone had member of their family or their relatives or their friends or their friend’s friends got killed in this revolt.  Except those who fled to other countries, the cream of Taiwan’s society and the entire generation of the leadership, opinion leaders, political activist, and dissidents, all were rounded up and exterminated.  Those who fled abroad were convinced that Taiwan was doomed unless it cut ties with China.  That was when the Taiwan independence movement started.

 As far as politics are concerned, after this uprising, a void, a vacuum was created in which KMT was at complete liberty to do whatever it wanted.  Martial law was proclaimed.  Terror reigned.  People were so terrified by this event, 228 itself and politics in general became absolutely taboo.  The first thing the parents taught their children was: don’t talk about 228, don’t touch politics, much less get involved in politics.  This lasted more than four decades.

 Even among the families of the victims of this event, they don’t talk about it.  I was once approached by a lady I didn’t know.  She told me: she knew her father was killed in 228, but she didn’t know how, why, where.  She asked her mother.  The mother refused to answer that question.  She asked me: do you know it?  Of course, I didn’t know.  That was a very sad case I encountered.

 So after that, the divide between those who identify themselves with Taiwan and those who identify themselves with China, became sharper, deeper.  It is painful for me to say this because I have good friends on both sides.  The animosity between those two groups was already breeding as KMT arrived in Taiwan, but after 228, it became even more decisive and deeper.  Inside Taiwan, rancor and resentment ran deep in the souls and hearts of the terrified silent majority.  Outside Taiwan, the Taiwan independence movement intensified.  A mutual mistrust, mutual contempt subsist until today and remains a very evident, crucial ingredient of Taiwan’s politics.

 It is true, after half a century of KMT controlled-education, KMT controlled mass media, this divide seems to have become less conspicuous.  But ironically after democratization of Taiwan, when KMT became the opposition, this divide seems to be resurrected due to the irrationality and excess of the KMT behavior as opposition.   With their majority in Congress and the mass media controlled by them, there are various attempts to prolong and preserve the privileges they enjoyed during the authoritarian period in Taiwan, worse still they seem to be in collusion with China and also thanks to China’s open and repeated threat to use force against Taiwan and deployment of missiles aiming at Taiwan.  All those remind the people of Taiwan, in their collective memory, the horror of Chinese rule.  It is not unlike the Holocaust to the Jewish People, but in the case of Taiwan, this 228 has become epithet symbolizing the worst, ugliest aspect of China’s national character.  So 228 remains a lively, virulent issue in Taiwanese politics.  It is a fixation in any serious political discourse or discussion about Taiwan-China relations.  228 remains an ingredient seldom missed in those discourses and debates.  It is a ghost haunting the collective conscience of the people of Taiwan and also it is a benchmark by which the people of Taiwan judge any politician about his or her degree of love or lack of love toward the people of Taiwan.  If you have any doubt about that, you may ask Mr. Ma Ying-Jeou, former mayor of Taipei and now Head of the KMT and who is aspiring to be President in 2008, why does he keep visiting the survivors and the families of the survivors of 228 and convey his regret, excuse and offer consolation.  Why does he do it?  Because this is a very serious, important issue for the current politician running for any public office.

 Everybody is in favor of reconciliation, but when offenses or crimes are committed, only the victim has a right to demand forgiveness.  The offender has no right to demand it.  They only can beg the mercy.  They can only confess.  This is the thing they have to do for reconciliation.  This is the main obstacle in Taiwan for reconciliation because it is not done, because the loudest voices calling for forgiveness came from those who have committed those offenses, those crimes.  This is the main obstacle of reconciliation.

 The offenders should take responsibility.  Who are they?  Taiwanese are very forgiving people, and they are not trying to take revenges against anyone, but still the responsibility is not clear about this very unfortunate event.

 I have to repeat that everyone is in favor of reconciliation.  How to explain to the victims’ families if the loudest voice is calling for forgiveness saying: Forget about it.  It is 60 years old event.  And this loudest voice came from the offenders.  This is the most serious obstacle for the reconciliation.

 Thank you very much.