2009-07-10 TV Interview of Chang Yi-Lung about White Terror in Taiwan a...

With English subtitles

Part 1


Part 2

The Real Transitional Justice We Need

“Do not come to claim my body. I wish give it to the National Taiwan University College of Medicine or medical training institute. When I was a student, I learnt a lot of medical knowledge from practical autopsy. If this body can be autopsied by students, to increase their medical knowledge, to contribute to their medical knowledge, it would be much more meaningful.”

This except comes from my grandfather’s last letters, which were written to my grandmother before his execution in 1953. Unfortunately his dying wish was not realized. These five letters were not given to his family, but were filed with other documents and eventually sent into the National Archives Administration. In 2008, once access to these documents became possible, I began to apply for any papers related to my grandfather and we saw copies of these letters for the first time. However, by this time my grandmother was suffering with Alzheimer's, which prevented her from learning that her husband had written letters to her 56 years previously. 

Below I set out three appeals to the government, which I ask as a family member of a political prisoner.

Firstly: The government should survey and return any previously unreturned personal items automatically. This should not be left as the responsibility of relatives to make a claim, but should be the government’s responsibility to ensure they are returned. There may be many personal letters and personal items that are still kept by the government, which the victim’s families know nothing about. The Government should make a systemic survey of any remaining items and return them as a matter of course.

Secondly: Files from every administration should be better organised. A law about file transfer, after each administration is dissolved, should be established. The present situation is that all files and documents from every administration are filed in various locations and not sorted in one place. Information held about the people involved in the arrests and trials of the political prisoners should be published. It maybe that under current law we are unable to prosecute the original military judges and secret police, but we should have the right to know who did this. We want to know which cases were judged, and by whom, which cases were investigated, and by whom. The government should publish these data and exhibit them in a museum.  

Thirdly: There should be a real effort to admit the fault and make a proper apology. We do not need a meaningless apology issued by a president or other unrelated individual. This is an unusual situation, we only have victims but no perpetrator. I believe that some of the people involved are still alive. I wish to hear someone publicly apologize for what he did; which case he judged or person he tortured, and state clearly that this was wrong. My grandfather was a dentist who had studied in Japan, he was arrested a few years after he had returned to Taiwan and opened his clinic. The charge made by the Chinese Nationalist Party was rebellion and he was first sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. When the document was sent to Chiang Kai-shek, he changed the sentence to death. This decision to amend the sentence took my grandfather’s life. He was 33 years old. We believe that excepting Chiang Kai-shek, there must be other participants still alive. However, has anyone come to publicly apologize? Until now, nobody!  

The start

Since I can remember, my mother never talked about her father, my grandfather. I never felt that this was unusual. I never questioned something that had never really formed part of my life.

When I was in senior high school, I read one sentence from a book that my uncle published at that time. He wrote: “My father was shot by Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party).” This short sentence left me with a lot of questions. Who was my grandfather? What had happened to him? At this time, I still knew nothing about him. I determined that I would learn more, so I viewed my mother’s ID card, on which was written her parents name on the back. With this, I now knew his name, the first step.

A few years later, when I left home to go to university I found a letter that had been sent to my home. It came from the Foundation for the Dispensation of Compensation Relating to Wrongful Trials on Charges of Sedition and Espionage During the Martial Law Period. It recommended   the award of 60 compensation points, which was the highest points calculation for death. Also at this time, I found a book in my home. The book’s title was “A Kaohsiung County People’s History of the 228 Incident and the White Terror”. In that book, the 11^th victim had the same name as my grandfather. This provided another piece of the puzzle. The book only recorded the verdict and the official statement. Basically, I knew his execution date and place and that, before his arrest, he was the managing doctor working in the public health centre of the Chunrih township.

In 2007, there was an exhibition called “Goodbye, President Chiang”. It exhibited some documents that were adjudged by Chiang Kai-shek during the martial law. One of these exhibits was my grandfather’s file. In the original document, he was first sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Then Chiang changed to death by a pen. He had had a chance to survival, but Chiang changed his world. Until 2007, we had not been privy to any of this information.

One year later, one of my friends suggested that I ask the National Archives Administration for the related dossier. After making my claim I received a file of more than 300 pages. There were five letters included in the file. Before that day, nobody in my family knew about these letters. The letters had been written to my grandmother and her three children and great aunt. The other documents were the court verdict, various other court documents and photos from before and after the execution. In those days, photographic evidence was required from all executions. The photos of all cases that Chiang Kai-shek viewed and judged were sent to him for review. He had asked to see the evidence that the executions had been carried out. Many people’s last images were recorded in this way and were kept secret until today.

When I gave the file to my mother, it was few days before her 58th birthday. She said that this was a belated 58th birthday present from her father, via her own daughter’s hand. She said that was the first time she felt her father had really existed and loved her, even though it was so late. My grandfather was arrested in September 1952, and my mother born in 3 months later. At the time he was executed, he had never had a chance to see his new born daughter.