The February 28 Incident

Publish Date: 06/01/2001 
Story Type: SOCIETY; HUMAN RIGHTS; HISTORY 
Byline: KELLY HER

When the Japanese troops left Taiwan in 1945, they were replaced by some of the worst elements of the ROC army. Tensions quickly arose between the ill-trained and undisciplined newcomers and long-term residents of the island. Unjust appropriation of property, food shortages, high inflation, and profiteering quickly became rife. 

Matters came to a head on February 28, 1947, following an incident in Taipei when an elderly woman was pistol -whipped by authorities for selling untaxed cigarettes. A bystander was shot in the ensuing commotion. The news spread quickly across the island, leading to widespread riots and loss of life. Some 300 mainlanders were killed. 

In the succeeding months, high-quality troop reinforcements were sent from the mainland to restore order. Many of them landed at the port of Keelung, northeast of Taipei, and traveled into the main city with machine guns mounted on flatbed trucks. As they entered the city outskirts, they began firing indiscriminately. This bloody crackdown set the stage for the so-called White Terror, during which thousands of islanders--there is no record of the precise number--lost their lives. 

The governor of Taiwan Province at that time was Chen Yi. In the aftermath of the February 28 Incident, he cracked down brutally on anyone who demanded government reform. Chen Yi was subsequently executed for conspiring with the Communists to overthrow the ROC government, but the damage was done. For nearly fifty years, the incident remained a taboo subject for discussion and a source of tension between Taiwanese and mainlanders. 

During the presidency of Lee Teng-hui, the government formally apologized to the victims of that sorry period of oppression and their families, and negotiations are under way for the payment of compensation. Taipei's former New Park was renamed the February 28 Peace Park, and houses a monument to the victims that contrives to be both simple and imposing. February 28 is now observed as Peace Memorial Day "in hopes of healing the wounds and closing the divisions left by the episode."