Taipei, 1947:
On the evening of February 27 a cigarette vendor and her two small children set up a portable stand under the banyan tree in Round Park. On it were a few packs of cigarettes and several coins with which to make change if she were lucky enough to make a sale.
Monopoly Bureau agents appeared, accused the woman of handling untaxed cigarettes, and seized her small stock with her tiny reserve of cash. People began to gather round. When she screamed in protest, seizing the arm of one of the agents, she was brutally struck down and pistol-whipped about the head. At this the angry crowd moved on the agents. Firing wildly, they opened a way for themselves to escape to a nearby police box. Behind them one person lay dead and the vendor appeared to be dying.
When gendarmes appeared, summoned by the civil police, the crowd permitted them to take the Monopoly Bureau agents away, but then promptly burned the Monopoly Bureau truck and its contents in the street.
On the next morning (February 28) a crowd estimated at about 2000 marched in orderly fashion from the Round Park area to the Monopoly Bureau Headquarters, carrying banners and slogan-placards which had been prepared during the night.
The February Incident, 1947
Chapter 12 of Formosa Betrayed, by George Kerr (full text available online)
Sixty-year anniversaries are quite important in East Asia. This is what happened during the last Fire Pig year in Taiwan.
For more information:
- “228″ remembered: 60th Commemoration of February 28, 1947 (New Taiwan)
- The 228 Massacre, As Documented in the US Media
- 228 Incident (Wikipedia)
- March for Taiwan (Philadelphia to DC, 24-28 February 2007; warning: autosound)
- Spirit of Taiwan 2007 (Taiwanese music and film event site, not much English)
- A Taste of Freedom, by Peng Ming-min (1972 book in hypertext format)
- The February 28 Holocaust (Jeff Tsay)
- Formosa Calling, by Allan J. Shackleton (another eyewitness account, in PDF)