New 228 Massacre publications trace resistance in historic Tainan County

國史館出版的《二二八事件檔案彙編》一書追溯了台南市歷史上的抵抗運動。

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Academia Historica held a book launch and panel discussion Saturday for two volumes of Tainan County Police Bureau archives from the 228 Massacre.

Academia Historica Director Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) said that during former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration, then-director Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) began compiling the 228 archives, per CNA. The latest publication centers on the Tainan County area, Chen said. He noted that “Tainan County” at the time of the 228 Massacre also included what are now Yunlin County and Chiayi County.

The 228 Massacre began on Feb. 28, 1947, when a Tobacco Monopoly Bureau officer shot and killed an innocent bystander while trying to confiscate contraband cigarettes from a 40-year-old widow named Lin Jiang-mai (林江邁) in Dadaocheng. Riots against the KMT erupted around Taiwan in the following weeks, and martial law was declared in March.

The period under martial law is known as the “White Terror,” during which hundreds of thousands of people were imprisoned or killed for political reasons by the KMT. Martial law was finally lifted in 1987.

Chen said some truths about the 228 Massacre still require further exploration, but many important truths have already been established. What remains, he said, is whether society is willing to face those truths sincerely.

National Taiwan University assistant history professor Wu Chun-ying (吳俊瑩) said the public has often focused on what occurred in Taipei on that day. However, Wu argued that the 228 Massacre also drew responses in western, eastern, and southern Taiwan.

Chiayi City was the focal point of the Yunlin–Chiayi–Tainan region during the 228 Massacre, Wu said. Local militia groups and students heeding radio calls converged in Chiayi, where they suffered heavy casualties in clashes with the authorities.

Wu said the two new volumes show “how participants rose up to resist” from the perspective of historic Tainan County. Rather than focusing only on victimization, the publications help fill gaps in understanding what happened in rural areas during the incident.

Hsu Hsueh-chi (許雪姬), an adjunct history research fellow at Academia Sinica, said the volumes focus on materials concerning the greater Tainan County area and draw from political archives stored at the National Archives. Records from the Tainan County Police Bureau are the most abundant and among the most valuable, she added.