Every nation has some historical trauma. Creepy twentieth century did not deprive any one of the countries to generously reward every bouquet mass psychoses caused terrible events. However, among the numerous large and not very got most of the Middle Kingdom: war, revolution, famine and occupation in the first half of the century and the severity of the second mode. Mainland China suffered much from Comrade Mao’s cultural revolution, Hong Kong remembers the bloody riots 1960, and Taiwan went through a difficult period of “White Terror”. History of Taiwan (Formosa) is quite interesting and even, in some ways, is instructive. In our work we will be talking about “228 Massacre”, also known as the “228 Incident” – is anti-government protests in Taiwan, which began on February 27, 1947 and was brutally suppressed by the Kuomintang government. The number of victims is estimated in range from 10 thousand to more than 30 thousand people. This event became the beginning of the period of persecution and repression, arranged by the Kuomintang in Taiwan, during which many thousands of people disappeared, were killed and thrown into prison. The number “228” goes back to the date when the massacre began – on February 28 or 02 /28 (Craig, 2008).
In the XIX century are beginning to colonize the island (mainly immigrants from China’s Fujian Province), and by 1842, the population of Formosa close to 2.5 million people. In 1886, the status of a separate Taiwan receives imperial province (very large increase), but soon begins Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the fate of the island makes another zigzag.
By Shimonoseki treaty between China and Japan April 17, 1895, Formosa came under control of the Japanese. Japanese authorities gave residents of Taiwan for two years for a decision: to remain under Japanese control or leave the island. In the first period, the board of the Japanese was very tough, which was caused by the ongoing resistance to Japanese rule of the island’s inhabitants, comes to uprisings and this “guerrilla warfare”. In 1898, Governor-General of Taiwan was General Kodama Gentaro, and the head of civil colonial administration – Goto Simpey.
While together the two competing points of view on the management of Taiwan. According to one of them (the second stuck Goto), the assimilation of the natives are not from the biological point of view, they cannot be controlled as well as the Japanese and the Formosan need to use principles of British colonies. On the other (this view is supported by future Prime Minister Takashi Hara) – Taiwanese regarded as “almost Japanese” and considered it possible to apply to them the same laws and rules as to the way the Japanese. From 1898 to 1906, while the Taiwan authorities headed Goto, on an island dominated by “British” control method. But here, July 30, 1912, on the Chrysanthemum Throne, the new emperor ascended, Taisho era began, accompanied by the general democratization and liberalization (as in Japan and in the dominion territories). In 1918 Hara Takashi become prime minister. In 1919, Governor-General of Taiwan became the first civilian official – Dan Kendziro. In October 1919, it was officially announced the beginning of a new Japanese policy in Taiwan (Integration). Taiwan has become regarded as a continuation of the Japanese islands, and its inhabitants had to realize the complex dialectic its honorary rights and responsibilities as citizens of the Emperor of Japan.
In general, the Japanese government began to transform into a part of Formosa in “Big Japan”. Were created by local governments, established the school system (the compulsory study of the Japanese language), corporal punishment was banned, medical service was improved, transport network was developed. And most importantly – there were a local Taiwanese intellectuals, because for Taiwanese disappeared all barriers to higher education, employment, administrative positions, doing business, etc.
During the 2nd World War, the course of integration into the empire increased further, the Japanese administration began to seek full “japanization” of local population. From the outset of the war, the Taiwanese began to call to join the Imperial Japanese Army and the Japanese Imperial Navy, and in 1945 was inducted full appeal.
After Japan’s surrender in 1945, went to Taiwan Republic of China, where at that time gathering pace civil war between government forces (power in the Republic of China belonged Kuomintang and its permanent leader – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek) and “traditional Chinese army” of Mao Zedong. In 1949, the Kuomintang troops suffer final defeat and retreat from China, some – in the border area between China and Indo- Chinese countries (there later formed the famous “golden triangle”), but most, headed by Generalissimo forwarded to Taiwan.
In October 1945, after 50 years of Japanese colonial rule, Taiwan was returned to China. Rule was established Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalists retreated to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists). Over the next 16 months the population was under the impression that the new government is mired in nepotism, corruption, exacerbated by the economic collapse (Ahern, & Hill, 1981). This has led to increased tensions between the inhabitants of the island, Taiwanese, and Chiang Kai-shek administration. The rebellion broke out on February 27 after an accidental conflict between saleswoman cigarettes and oversight staff. In his brutal suppression of army units participated.
After the events of evening, February 27, 1947 on the morning of February 28, 1947, security forces subordinate to the Governor-General of Taiwan Chen Yi, opened fire with machine guns on unarmed demonstrators demanding the arrest and trial of the agents implicated in the incident on the eve of the bloody incident. From machine gun fire killed several people. The shooting of peaceful demonstrators has already led to the present uprising. March 4 Taiwanese Taipei captured the city administration and several military depots, as well as radio, in which the rebels have turned to other inhabitants of the island and to the Government of the Republic of China. The same evening, the authorities imposed martial law was declared a curfew. Soldiers patrolling in cars opened fire on any intruder (Fitzgerald, 1964; Craig, 2008).
Nevertheless, within a few weeks, the Taiwanese kept control over most of the island. Although the initial performance was spontaneous and peaceful, within a few days the Taiwanese managed to organize and coordinate activities. Public order is maintained temporary police forces, which were organized by students. Local leaders formed the Committee for the settlement, which applied to the government with 32 demands to reform the management of the province. They demanded greater autonomy, free elections, adding army weapons, cessation of corruption. Considered also appeal to the UN in order to pass the island under an international mandate, as the transition of Taiwan under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China (the name of the State in the territory. Taiwan, created by Chinese nationalists of the Kuomintang) was not formally recognized by any international acts. Taiwanese also demanded representation in the upcoming negotiations on a peace treaty with Japan. Small groups, including guerrilla “Brigade 27” with weapons stolen from military bases in Taichung, adhered to the communist ideology. To buy time, the governor received a delegation of representatives of society, formed the transitional government – Committee on settlement of the incident. Negotiating and agreeing walked until March 8, when the army landed on the island from mainland China (Wachman, 1994).
Under the guise of negotiations Chiang Kai-shek army gathered considerable force in Fujian Province, March 8 and went on the offensive.
By late March, Chen Yi managed to arrest or kill all the leading organizers. His troops executed 3-4 thousand people across the island. Target is a Taiwanese elite, many local personalities of the Japanese government were subjected to repression. A significant part of victims were high school students and students who actively participated in the activities of law enforcement groups, formed the Committee. As a result, mutual clashes with Taiwanese suffered recent migrants from the mainland and representatives of ethnic Hakka. Some sources claim that the troops arrested and executed anyone who wore a student form (Phillips, 1999; Gary, 2000).
These events became the start of the campaign of repression carried out by the Kuomintang until the lifting of martial law in 1987. Thousands of people were imprisoned and executed for their real or suspected of dissent. To solve political problems KMT used the services of criminals.
The period of martial law is also called the “White Terror”. His victims included many thousands of Taiwanese, who were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for suspicion of collaboration with the CPC and other opposition forces. This period is characterized by the dominance of the one-party system (Jacobs, 2008). KMT was the only legal political force in Taiwan, and the economy, governance and ideology were under his complete dictatorship.
Were banned demonstrations, strikes, restrictions on freedom of the press. Command garrison forces received authority to censor the media, control communications, customs and emigration services. Violators of martial law indulged in a military court. For 40 years, the rule of the Kuomintang in Taiwan any public mention of the incident was a criminal offense.
Martial law regime had adversely affected the development of the media in Taiwan. And the press and television have evolved in a similar pattern: the biggest monopolies and television stations were under direct or indirect control of the Kuomintang. Such control does not prevent technological progress (so Taiwanese newspapers in the late 1960s. Switched to color printing), but seriously hindered the development of meaningful (Shih-Chi, 2010).
Need to revise the policy of the Kuomintang against the media company was recognized long before the lifting of martial law. At the same time press and television have different opportunities for democratization. If the number of newspapers is strictly regulated by the Press Law, the law on television there was a loophole: it does not regulate the activities of cable TV39. This led to the creation of a large number of stations “Channel Four”, which, if not legal, enjoyed enormous popular spectator. Democratization, thus, continued from above – press (after the lifting of martial law), and the bottom – in the field of broadcasting (Huang Ching-Lung, 2009).
The Taiwanese government has built on the islands, including lying in the line of sight from the coast of Fujian (Xiamen city) archipelago Kinmen, a powerful defensive system designed to reflect the PLA military invasion. Periodically in the 1950s military confrontation between China and the Republic of China flowed into the hot phase, when armed clashes, shelling the enemy, secret special operations.
This topic for many decades had been a taboo in Taiwan. Kuomintang dictatorship little inferior in hardness with his left counterpart on the other side of the strait, and reminisce about the uprising did not like – it was politically dangerous, and stir injury is always unpleasant. By the nineties party control weakened considerably, people started talking about what used to be not accepted. Only in 1995, the anniversary of the incident, President Lee Teng-hui had spoken publicly about it.
In 2000 he became president of the Republic of China opposition candidate – Democratic Progressive Party – Chen Shui-bian. KMT for the first time in half a century lost power in the country, failing, however, to retain a dominant position in Parliament. In 2004, Chen Shui-bian won the presidential re- election by defeating the KMT candidate Lien Chan by just 0.1%. This led to a tightening of the struggle between the KMT and the DPP.
March 22, 2008 the Kuomintang candidate Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Ying-jeou) won the presidential election in the Republic of China, with 58 % of the vote and beating his opponent, the representative of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Frank Hsieh (Frank Hsieh) to 16 % (Wachman, 1994; Bagby, 1992).
In September 2009, the court sentenced the former president of the Republic of China Chen Shui-bian to life imprisonment on charges of corruption (Heylen & Sommers, 2010). Sam Shui-bian said that the criminal case against him was politically motivated: during his reign of the Republic of China emphasized its independence from China, while the present Republic of China government is committed to economic convergence and closer relations with China.
Now the “228 Incident” openly investigated and discussed. Its anniversary is celebrated as the National Day of Remembrance and Peace. February 28 of each year, the President of the Republic of China, together with other officials in a memorial bell ringing in memory of the victims, and kneels before the members of their families. Monuments and Memorial Park “228 Incident” opened in many cities of Taiwan, including Taipei.
Taiwanese composer Xiao Tayzhan dedicated to the events 1947 Overture 1947, for soprano, chorus and orchestra. The final part of the overture is the “Taiwan Green” – a song that advocates Taiwan independence from China is considered as a potential future national anthem of the Republic of Taiwan.
First (immediately after the Japanese leaving), the people of Taiwan naively were happy reunification with mainland China. But as it turned out – it was too early. In October 1945, the island came the Chinese administration and one year of her reign was enough to hapless natives were able to understand that the new government is very different (in a negative way) from the former Japanese. Following high hopes followed by no less disappointment for 50 years, the Chinese government managed to move away from Taiwan affairs, and local sentiment became alien to him. Corruption and crime flourished, local life was worse than the Japanese, and the people from the continent that took place in the government, they are no less alien than the former “invaders” (Ching, 2001). Situation was aggravated by the economic collapse. As a result, mutual misunderstanding led to a feud between the authorities and returning locals poured out in the bloody incident “228”.
In the “social mechanics” of revolutions social degradation processes that accompany any revolution, act most clearly.
Taiwan emerged one of the most brutal political regimes in the world, with all the trappings: legal disenfranchisement of the population, its economic exploitation, lack of civil and political liberties, with prisons, torture, etc. etc. Establishment of a regime accompanied by a real genocide – were physically destroyed by the best representatives of the local population, the nation was deprived of her brain. At the same time, the regime has developed in record time, just 1-2 years. It was the longest of all similar events in world history; martial law in Taiwan remained for 38 years. The era of “White Terror” lasted until 1987.
Nationalist Party led Taiwan for 50 years, until 2000. Now the KMT with People First Party opposition constitute “blue coalition”, which is more favorable to the idea of unification with China, rather than democratic “green coalition” leaning towards Taiwan independence. KMT supporters are mostly so-called mainland Chinese, who make up 14 percent of the island’s population (Phillips, 1999). The party enjoyed support among wealthy businessmen who are interested in strengthening economic ties with mainland China, and from the rural poor through social programs and the fight against corruption.
Works Cited
Craig, A. Smith.Taiwan’s 228 Incident and the Politics of Placing Blame. Past Imperfect. 2008. № 14. P. 143?163. Print.
Gary, D. Rawnsley. The Media and Popular Protest in Pre-Democratic Taiwan. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 2000. № 4. P. 580. Print.
Shih-Chi, Kao. Media Culture in Taiwan: The Case of Taiwanese Nationalism. Sydney, 2010. P. 7. Print.
Wachman, Alan. Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization. Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994. Print.
Huang Ching-Lung. The changing roles of the media in Taiwan’s democratization process. Massachusetts, 2009. P. 16. Print.
Bagby, Wesley Marvin, The Eagle-Dragon Alliance: America’s Relations with China in World War II, University of Delaware Press, 1992, P.65. Print.
Fitzgerald, C.P. The Birth of Communist China, Penguin Books, 1964, 106 p. Print.
Heylen, Ann and Sommers, Scott. Becoming Taiwan: From Colonialism to Democracy. Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden, 2010. Print.
Ahern, Emily Martin and Hill, Gates (eds.). The Anthropology of Taiwanese Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1981.Print.
Ching, Leo T.S. (2001) Becoming Japanese. Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Print.
Jacobs, Bruce J. Local Politics in Rural Taiwan under Dictatorship and Democracy. Norwalk, CT: EastBridge, 2008. Print.
Phillips, Steven. Between Assimilation and Independence. Taiwanese Political Aspirations Under Nationalist Chinese Rule, 1945-1948. In: Murray A Rubinstein (ed), Taiwan. A New History Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe, 1999, pp. 275-319. Print.
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