The Day that Changed Taiwan: How the February 28 Massacre Shaped the Island's History and Identity
The February 28 Massacre was a popular uprising against the authoritarian government of the Kuomintang (KMT), the Chinese nationalist party that took control of Taiwan after Japan's defeat in World War II. The Taiwanese, who had lived under Japanese colonial rule for 50 years, felt discriminated against and exploited by the new rulers, who were seen as corrupt, incompetent, and repressive. Public dissatisfaction turned into violent protests after state tobacco monopoly agents assaulted a Taiwanese widow suspected of selling contraband cigarettes in Taipei, on February 27. The next day, an officer fired into a crowd of protesters, killing a man. The revolt spread across the island, and the Taiwanese demanded political and economic reforms.
The KMT governor, Chen Yi, appointed by President Chiang Kai-shek, responded with brutality. He requested military reinforcements from the mainland, and the National Revolutionary Army began a bloody crackdown on the rebels. Thousands of civilians were killed, disappeared, tortured, arrested, or summarily executed. It is estimated that between 18,000 and 28,000 people lost their lives in the massacre. Many of the dead were intellectuals, professionals, community leaders, and political activists, who were seen as a threat by the KMT. The massacre marked the beginning of the White Terror, a period of nearly four decades of martial law, censorship, persecution, and oppression against political dissidents and advocates for Taiwan's independence.
The February 28 Massacre is considered one of the most significant events in modern Taiwanese history and was a critical catalyst for the island's independence movement. For a long time, the massacre was a taboo, and the KMT attempted to cover up the facts and silence the victims and their families. Only after Taiwan's democratization in the 80s and 90s did the massacre begin to be openly discussed, and its details became the subject of government and academic investigation. President Lee Teng-hui, the first Taiwan-born president, was the first to publicly acknowledge the massacre on its anniversary in 1995. Since then, the Taiwanese government has created museums, parks, and monuments dedicated to the memory of the victims, and declared February 28 a national holiday and a day of mourning and reconciliation.
The February 28 Massacre also has implications for relations between Taiwan and mainland China, which still claims sovereignty over the island. The massacre is seen as a symbol of Taiwanese resistance to Chinese rule, and of the affirmation of Taiwan's identity and autonomy. On the other hand, the Chinese government downplays or denies the severity of the massacre and accuses Taiwan's independence advocates of using it to incite separatism and ethnic hatred. The massacre continues to be a sensitive and controversial issue in relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. 
