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.