The 228 massacre of up to 20,000 Taiwanese by Chinese KMT troops is the defining moment of modern Taiwanese history. It gave birth to the Taiwan Independence movement, and still casts a shadow over Taiwan's politics. Canadian missionaries were among the few foreign witnesses to this tragedy, and Presbyterians among its victims. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has played a key role in helping Taiwan come to terms with this memory.
This year was the 60th anniversary on February 28 (hence, 228). A protest held on that date, in 1947, led Chiang Kai-shek to send troops to Taiwan. Intellectuals and students were especially targeted. George William Mackay (son of George Leslie Mackay) arrived at the Tamsui Middle School on March 7. There had been trouble in Taiwan he was told. At dawn on March 11, army troops came for Principal Tan and teacher Ng. A third teacher, Lo Ui, was shot as he tried to help Tan.
Mackay reported on the massacre and, for the first time, presented the Taiwanese cry for help from the UN to the world. Mackay reported: “The Formosan is genuinely eager that the Island come under UN Mandate,” and “The remedy would be simple, granting all Formosans the right to vote for what form of Government they desired and 98 per cent would vote United Nations.”
The letter seems to have had no effect in the one church in the one country that might have presented the Taiwanese case to the new United Nations. For 60 years it sat forgotten in The Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives.
In Taiwan, a 40-year martial law and “white terror” cast a pall of silence on a whole people. Even the word “228” was banned. In February 1987, the Presbyterian weekly Taiwan Church News became the first paper to break the silence with a special issue. It was confiscated by the Garrison Command. In response, the Presbyterian Church took to the street and, for the first time as a church, held a demonstration demanding return of the paper. Amazingly, they were successful, and the Garrison Command had to reprint and mail out the entire issue.
In 2007, Taiwanese in Canada commemorated the 60th anniversary of 228 with a series of events in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. PCC Moderator Wilma Welsh and other former Canadian missionaries to Taiwan attended events in Toronto.
