Transitional Justice Commission Acting Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠) yesterday said that the commission is shifting its attention to declassifying documents and dealing with authoritarian symbols.
Yang made the remarks during a radio interview, when the host asked her to comment on the commission’s next order of business following the one-year anniversary of its founding on May 31 last year.
The commission is to step up its efforts to collect records and documents from archives and depositories over the next year, with an eye toward increasing the volume of documents available, while it plans to start dealing with authoritarian symbols this month, she said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
When asked to identify the commission’s main challenges, Yang said that the bureaucratic instinct toward secrecy remains a difficulty during historical reconstruction and declassification efforts.
To exonerate victims of political persecution, the commission must first investigate the historical facts surrounding their cases, but the materials it has obtained from government agencies have often been redacted to the point of illegibility, she said.
The commission frequently has to negotiate with governmental agencies for access to documents in a less-censored form, she said.
An important contributing factor to these difficulties is the belatedness of the nation’s transitional justice program, she said, adding that resistance to transparency in many cases is rooted in institutional habit, not ill-intent.
“I believe transitional justice is a work of advocacy of which communication is a part,” she said, adding that the commission is overseeing its sixth large-scale transfer of documents of about 130,000 items.
Asked to name an event of personal emotional resonance she experienced as a member of the commission over its first year, Yang said that she was moved when former Japanese Imperial Navy veteran Huang Chin-tao (黃金島) showed up in a wheelchair at the commission’s first-ever ceremony on Oct. 5 last year, held to exonerate victims of political persecution, despite him suffering an illness.
“I was very much moved when I saw the corner of Huang’s eye glisten and he shook with emotion as he went through the documents of exoneration during the ceremony,” she said.
As she is a descendent of novelist Yang Kui (楊逵), who was jailed for 12 years for political crimes, it was deeply gratifying to see Huang at the ceremony, Yang said.
Born in Taichung during the Japanese colonial era, Huang served as a volunteer soldier in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
After Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945, he was detained in China’s Hainan Province before escaping and returning to Taiwan.
He headed an armed uprising against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops following the 228 Incident in 1947, an act for which he received a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison.
He was released in 1975 after serving 24 years in prison.
Huang died in January aged 93.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS