The central government should name the people responsible for the 228 Incident and make historical truths clear, which is an integral step toward realizing transitional justice and true coexistence in Taiwan, an academic said yesterday.
The 228 Incident refers to the nationwide anti-government uprisings that began on Feb. 27, 1947, and a series of bloody purges that followed in the subsequent months by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
Taiwan 228 Care Association director Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) yesterday said that historical truths and those responsible must be made clear.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who headed the KMT at the time, should take ultimate historical responsibility for the mishandling of the 228 Incident, he said.
“Truth is the first step toward implementing transitional justice in Taiwan and is the basis of peace between different groups of people in the nation,” Hsueh said.
Hsueh’s comments refer to the peaceful relationship between waishengren (外省人) — a term referring to Chinese immigrants who came to Taiwan with the KMT after 1949 and their descendants, and benshengren (本省人), who came to Taiwan from China hundreds of years earlier.
The 228 Incident is still misunderstood, with those that should be held responsible exempted of that burden and those who shoulder the blame who do not need to, Hsueh said.
Taiwan Association of University Professors secretary-general Hsu Wen-tang (許文堂) said that mutual understanding is necessary and the public must form a consensus, after ample negotiation, that the 228 Incident was a mistake that should never happen again.
“We will see nothing short of achieving in Taiwan what has been achieved in Europe — where none will dare refute how the Nazi’s have ravaged the region — as the successful implementation of transitional justice,” Hsu said.
Adding that the fourth annual Gongsheng Music Festival (共生音樂節) is scheduled to be held on the afternoon of Feb. 28 in Taipei in commemoration of the incident, Northern Taiwan Society’s deputy chairman Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) said that the younger generation in Taiwan has shown great interest in the incident and expressed hope that efforts of transitional justice could soon be implemented, as the younger generation seeks to expose truths surrounding the 228 Incident.
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