Taiwan's '228 Massacre' killed tens of thousands--One victim's story sheds light on tragedy

February 23, 11:05 PMBoston Progressive ExaminerMichael Richardson

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Dr. Kuo Chiang-Yuan

The last day of the month is the anniversary of the '228 Massacre' in Taiwan, February 28, 1947.

Nationalist troops of Chiang Kia-shek, sent to Taiwan from China to quell an uprising of native Formosans over harsh treatment by the Republic of China, went on an island-wide rampage of murder and mayhem killing an unknown number of tens of thousands.

Martial law imposed on the island by ROC troops kept news of the killings and torture from being told for decades following the war crimes. Many just disappeared or became one of the many bodies floating in harbors or along roadsides.

An American diplomat, George Kerr, was stationed in Taipei during the 228 Massacre and later recounted the horror in 1965 with his book Formosa Betrayed. In the book there is an account, related to Kerr by a British doctor, Ira Hirschy, of the abduction of a hospital administrator by ROC troops.

"He told of circumstances at Gilam, southeast of Keelung, where during the uprising the Chinese Mayor, his officials, and all local Chinese police and military personnel retired to a mountain hideout."

"In their absence the leading citizens carried on public affairs. A Formosan doctor--a surgeon and director of the local hospital…took a leading role in the Citizens Committee established to govern the community in the absence of all mainland officialdom. But when Chiang's troops came in, the (Chinese) Mayor and his men came out of hiding."

"Scores of local citizens were arrested. The director of the hospital, another doctor, five leading Committee colleagues, and more than one hundred 'ordinary' Formosans were then executed."

That is it. The world would know no more of the crime for years to come.

The doctor, Kuo Chiang-Yuan, was taken away and never returned. Eventually Dr. Kuo's widow and young daughter would move to the United States carrying the tremendous loss in their hearts.

Then, in 2007, 76 year-old Kang A-Yue came forward and told the fate of Dr. Kuo. Farmers, 16 year-old Kang and his older brother, had gone into the fields after supper to check on the crops. Suddenly a military truck appeared and KMT soldiers pierced the brothers' hands with bayonets and then tied them to the truck with wire stuck through their bleeding palms.

Later seven more victims were bayoneted and tied to the truck including Dr. Kuo and a school principal. The truck stopped in front of a Ma-Tzu temple. Kang and his brother were ordered to dig a deep hole. Then, horror-stricken the brothers were forced to bury the other seven massacre victims alive, still bound with wire.

"Those soldiers swang their bayonets towards us and pierced our bodies arbitrarily." Kang was pierced in the face. "We were ordered to get on the truck. And they pierced our palms with their bayonets."

"They used metal wires to tie us to the truck, with metal wires piercing through our palms….On the same truck their were seven other captives."

"We were all beaten badly….Eventually we were ordered to drag all other badly beaten captives to the Ma-Tzu temple, dig a hole in front of the temple, and bury them, live or dead, in the hole we dug there."

"After those captives were buried, we were beaten again, until we became unconscious."

Kang hid for years in the hills, afraid to be identified as a survivor of the bloodshed. Kang lived in fear for sixty years.

Margaret Lu, Dr. Kuo's daughter, is still seeking justice for his brutal murder. "I am an only child and posthumous daughter of him, not knowing the cause of his death until a few years of my immigration to the United States in 1973 because my mother was scared to death to tell me the truth."