The 228 Incident: Sixty years on - Former journalist recalls torture in basement prison

"What happened has happened. What good does it do whether I forgive them or not?"

Wei Jin-wen, White Terror survivor

It was around 8am on Feb. 28, 1947. Wei Jin-wen (魏錦文) was among the protesters marching toward the headquarters of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau in Taipei City to present a protest letter to bureau authorities.

Wei a reporter covering the event for a newspaper owned and run by his uncle. The protest took place one day after a woman vendor was wounded by bureau agents who confiscated her cigarette products and money as she did not have a sales permit from the government.

When the protesters discovered that bureau staffers had fled, they waited patiently. A man volunteered to take them to see Chen Yi (陳儀), then Taiwan's executive administrator.

The man was a banshan (半山, "half mountain") -- a Taiwanese who went to China and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during Japanese colonial rule. They worked with the KMT and were allocated government positions on their return to Taiwan.

When the crowd reached Chen's office, on the site where the Executive Yuan now stands, they were met with machinegun fire. Eight people were killed.

Wei to escape unscathed, but his luck would not last long.

Early the morning of March 9, he heard a violent pounding on the door of the newspaper building where he worked and lived. City police were searching high and low for his uncle, who was a member of a civilian council that had been set up to handle the Feb. 28 incident.

When they could not find his uncle, they took Wei. He was taken to the basement of a police station, where he was beaten on the chest with the butt of a rifle. He passed out several times, but regained consciousness after his interrogators poured cold water over him.

The torture went on. They covered his face with a towel drenched with water.

"I told myself that if I didn't tell them anything, even a lie, I would probably die right there," said Wei, now 81.

He was later thrown into a cage in the basement, where he developed a fever. He did not know how long he would stay in the dark dungeon.

One Wei and his cellmates were taken out of the cage, blindfolded and their hands bound. They were hauled to a truck and taken away. He thought his life would soon end.

Wei he does not know what happened, but the truck eventually turned around and took them back to the station. He was later released owing to insufficient evidence.

Only was he to discover that he and his aunt had been accused of "printing leaflets inciting rebellion."

Wei's brother, who worked at their uncle's print shop, was not so lucky.

He was taken away in 1954 and executed one year later on a treason charge.

Looking Wei, a devout Buddhist, said that he just thanked Buddha for being alive and healthy.

"What happened has happened. What good does it do whether I forgive them or not?" he asked.

Wei works five days a week as a volunteer Japanese tour guide at the Presidential Office and Taipei City's 228 Memorial Museum.