228 Incident

The 228 Massacre, 2/28 Massacre, also called 228 Incident by KMT, or 2/28 for short, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947 which was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang(KMT)-led Republic of China government and which resulted in the massacre of numerous civilians, beginning on February 28, or 2/28. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000 or more. The incident marked the beginning of the Kuomintang's White Terror period in Taiwan, in which thousands more inhabitants vanished, died, or were imprisoned. This incident is one of the most important events in Taiwan's modern history, and is a critical impetus for the Taiwan independence movement.

In 1945, 50 years of Japanese rule of Taiwan ended due to Japan's loss in the World War II, and in October the United States on behalf of the Allied Forces handed temporary administrative control of Taiwan to the Kuomintang-administered Republic of China (ROC) under General Order No. 1 to handle the surrender of Japanese troops and ruling administration. Local inhabitants became resentful of what they perceived as a high handed and frequently corrupt KMT authorities inclined to the arbitrary seizure of private property and economic mismanagement. The flashpoint in tensions came on February 27 in Taipei, when a dispute between a cigarette vendor and an officer of the Office of Monopoly triggered civil disorder and an open rebellion that lasted for days. The uprising was violently put down by the military of the Republic of China and the country was placed under martial law.

The subject was officially taboo for decades. On the anniversary of the event in 1995, President Lee Teng-hui addressed the subject publicly, a first for a Taiwanese head of state. The event is now openly discussed and February 28 is commemorated as Peace Memorial Day (traditional Chinese: 和平紀念日; simplified Chinese: 和平纪念日; pinyin: hépíng jìniànrì ), and details of the event have become the subject of government and historian investigation. Every February 28, the president of the ROC gathers with other officials to ring a commemorative bell in memory of the victims. The president bows to family members of 2/28 victims and gives each one a certificate officially exonerating the victim of any crime, who were previously blacklisted as enemies of the state. Monuments and memorial parks to the victims of 2/28 have been erected in a number of Taiwanese cities, including Kaohsiung and Taipei. Taipei's former "Taipei New Park" was rededicated as 228 Peace Memorial Park and houses the National 228 Memorial Museum to commemorate the tragic incident, which opened on February 28, 2011.