Several foreign figures in Taiwan's democracy movement yesterday recalled the dark days of martial law as part of a series of human- rights activities the government is organizing to fill in historical gaps and to tell forgotten stories.
The figures, including well-known human-rights activist Linda Gail Arrigo and Munakata Takayuki, who helped secure the release of then-dissident Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) from prison in the 1960s, came from several countries, including the US, Japan and the Netherlands. Many of them had been blacklisted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration because of their involvement in the democracy movement.
PHOTO: CNA
President Chen Shui-bian (
"We can forgive historical mistakes, but we cannot forget the truth," Chen said.
Chen said that Taiwan had invited these friends back to tell their stories. Most importantly, he said, their families had also been invited so they could understand what their loved ones had done for Taiwan.
Part of the conference -- titled"A Journey of Remembrance and Appreciation" -- organized by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, was devoted to the role played by churches in the nation's democratization, especially the Presbyterian Church.
One participant, American priest James Collignon, first arrived in Taiwan in 1957. During a time when the Roman Catholic Church was on good terms with the KMT administration, he chose to associate with Protestants, including pro-independence Presbyterians.
"I was not a political person, and my problem with the administration was not a political one but rather a moral problem," Collignon said.
"The administration was telling a political lie -- it told people it was going to retake China," he said.
Collignon said that back then the government controlled the media and had ample ways to persuade people to believe their lies. But when persuasion failed, the government resorted to force.
He said he felt sorry that the Catholic Church at that time was cozy with the government and stood by and tolerated everything the KMT did.
An American, Presbyterian minister Donald Wilson, came to Taiwan in 1959. He was first told by his mission committee to study Mandarin. But after a while, the local church committee asked him to start studying Taiwanese.
"Our mission office worker, who was Taiwanese born, told me that when he heard someone speak [Mandarin] his initial reaction was to take two steps backward because for him Mandarin was equal to oppression," Wilson said.
Wilson also knew Peng, the forerunner of the Taiwanese democratic and independence movement. When Peng was imprisoned, he would visit Peng's wife. Later, when Peng was put under house arrest, he continued to visit them.
However, when Wilson and his family returned to the US in 1967, he was informed that he had become persona non grata. He had to wait until 1980 to return to Taiwan, although still under the strict surveillance of security agents.
Japanese Kobayashi Masanari, who was arrested for aiding the democratic movement, told of his experience behind bars.
Masanari was arrested in the 1960s for helping to distribute pro-democracy flyers. He was put in a cell next to Hsieh Tsung-min (謝聰敏), a student of Peng's who had co-authored the 1964 Declaration of Taiwan Self-Salvation.
"At the time Hsieh was tortured. I could also hear the howls of other students who were tortured. When I heard that sound I felt pain as if I had been beaten myself," he said.
After his release, Masanari helped deliver Hsieh's letters to Peng, who by then was in the US. Masanari said that when Peng heard of Hsieh's death sentence, Peng decided to release the letters to The New York Times. Publication of the letters and the resulting pressure from US congressmen deterred the KMT government from carrying out the execution.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at