Mon, Feb 17, 2020 page3

• Activists urge Tsai to remove symbols

  BOOK LAUNCH: Researchers have published 27 volumes that include testimonies from victims of the White Terror era and their families, Academia Historica’s president said

  • By Yang Chun-hui and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  A group of social activists yesterday called on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to have all remaining symbols of White Terror era presidents removed or relocated before the end of her second term.

  As someone who lived through the White Terror era, it is his greatest wish to see the symbols of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) — particularly the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall — “dealt with,” activist Wang Wen-hung (王文宏) said.

  Wang, who represents the families in Kaohsiung of victims of the 228 Incident and White Terror era, made the comment during a news conference at Academica Historica in Taipei announcing the release of three new books on the period.

  

  Academia Historica President Chen Yi-shen speaks at a book launch at the institution in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

  Wang said that he had not learned until he was 18 years old that his father had been beaten to death during the 228 Incident.

  The three books allowed him to verify whether information he was told about the era were accurate, he said.

  The books are the result of research that was started during the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), when the Democratic Progressive Party began seeking the truth about the White Terror era, Academia Historica President Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) said.

  Now that information on the era is being digitized, people seeking answers would not need to visit the archives and have documents retrieved for them and copied one at a time, like those a generation earlier did, Chen Yi-shen said.

  Researchers have so far published 27 volumes filled with documents including testimonies from victims and their families, he said, adding that these first-hand accounts are invaluable to better understanding the nation’s history.

  Many original documents on events of the White Terror era have gone missing, but in many cases researchers were able to find copies or supplementary documents in the archives of other government bodies, 228 Memorial Foundation chairman Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) said.

  Also, documents related to events in rural areas of Pingtung County and what are today parts of the special municipality of Kaohsiung were found in documents on what was then Kaohsiung county, he said.

  The documents helped the researchers understand how officials of the time dealt with what was happening, he said, adding that they also showed that some officials were sympathetic toward the victims.

  Some of the information collected in the 27 volumes contained details that were not mentioned in previous accounts of the era, he said.

  Academia Historica has been working with the National Development Council’s National Archives Administration since 2018 to collect documents related to the era, he said, adding that together they have so far scanned 130,000 pages for digital preservation, which are all available to the public on the Internet.
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