The 823 Artillery Bombardment was a shock to Taiwan as well as the international community, but it did not deter reporters from wanting to go and get first-hand information, former war correspondent Yao Cho-chi (姚琢奇) said on Thursday at the Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei ahead of the 53rd anniversary of the battle.
On Aug. 23, 1958, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) launched an intense artillery bombardment on Kinmen, sparking the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis — also called the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis — as the PRC attempted to seize Matsu and Kinmen from the Republic of China (ROC).
Yao, then a war correspondent for United Press International (UPI), was present on Kinmen when the ROC Armed Forces landed.
“We all knew it was dangerous, but all the war correspondents wanted in anyway,” Yao said, adding that during the ROC landing, there was an incident in which six correspondents went missing.
On Sept. 26, 1958, a group of reporters first took an ROC Navy landing craft and approached the outer waters of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), where they then transferred onto an amphibious Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT), which was to take them to the beach amid the bombardment.
However, a failure with the landing mechanism on the LVT resulted in the vehicle sinking. Of the eight reporters onboard, only Youth Warrior Paper (now known as the Youth Daily News) war correspondent Yan Chung-tse (嚴重則) and a Japanese reporter with UPI survived.
The Japanese reporter eventually swam to shore after four hours, while Yan was rescued after floating in the sea for 30 hours.
To mark the anniversary of the bombardment, the Ministry of National Defense said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) have invited all the correspondents who reported from the front lines during the bombardment to Kinmen, in recognition of their contribution in reporting on an important part of the nation’s history, to revisit the island.
A memorial was held on Thursday last week at the Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei in commemoration of the six correspondents who went missing in the line of duty.
Yao, who led the commemoration, said he never forgot the six reporters, and after great effort, had finally succeeded in getting them enshrined in the Martyrs’ Shrine in 2008.
Returning to Kinmen and paying his respects to these brave colleagues touched him deeply, Yao said, adding that the events on Kinmen should remain fresh in people’s memory.
Yao said while reporting from Kinmen, he witnessed how the navy’s seamen all worked together to defend the island from invasion, recalling that he even saw a medic helping other wounded soldiers despite having been hit in the stomach by a stray bullet.
“At that time, everyone helped each other and didn’t think about life or death: It didn’t really matter,” Yao said. “It might sound strange now, but at that time it was the norm.”
According to Hung Chin-tseng (洪縉曾), a Broadcasting Corp of China correspondent who had been with Yao in Kinmen, an indicator of how bad the situation was was the fact that everyone had to sign a form saying they understood the life and death situation they was entering.
Hung said before the plane he took to Kinmen landed, the exploding artillery was causing water to splash up against the windows, and the moment they had got off the plane military personnel shouted at them to run to the end of the runway to try and find a spot were the artillery could not hit.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS