February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of an estimated 30,000 civilians.
The February 28 incident, also rendered as the February 28 massacre, the 228 incident, or the 228 massacre (from Chinese: 二二八事件; pinyin: Èr'èrbā shìjiàn), was a violently suppressed anti-government uprising in Taiwan by Kuomintang governor Chen Yi and president Chiang Kai-shek, killing thousands of civilians beginning on February 28, 1947. The number of Taiwanese deaths from the incident and massacre was estimated to be between 18,000 and 28,000. The incident is one of the most important events in Taiwan's modern history and was a critical impetus for the Taiwan independence movement.In 1945, following the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, the Allies handed administrative control of Taiwan to the Republic of China (ROC), thus ending 50 years of Japanese colonial rule. Local inhabitants became resentful of what they saw as highhanded and frequently corrupt conduct on the part of the Kuomintang (KMT) authorities, including arbitrary seizure of private property, economic mismanagement, and exclusion from political participation. The flashpoint came on February 27, 1947, in Taipei, when agents of the State Monopoly Bureau struck a Taiwanese widow suspected of selling contraband cigarettes. An officer then fired into a crowd of angry bystanders, striking one man who died the next day. Soldiers fired upon demonstrators the next day, after which a radio station was seized and news of the revolt was broadcast to the entire island. As the uprising spread, the KMT-installed governor Chen Yi called for military reinforcements, and the uprising was violently put down by the National Revolutionary Army. 2 years later for the following 38 years, the island was placed under martial law in a period known as the White Terror.During the White Terror, the KMT persecuted perceived political dissidents, and the incident was considered too taboo to be discussed. President Lee Teng-hui became the first president to discuss the incident publicly on its anniversary in 1995. The event is now openly discussed and details of the event have become the subject of government and academic investigation. February 28 is now an official public holiday called Peace Memorial Day, on which the president of Taiwan gathers with other officials to ring a commemorative bell in memory of the victims. Monuments and memorial parks to the victims of the February 28 incident have been erected in a number of Taiwanese cities. In particular, Taipei's former Taipei New Park was renamed 228 Peace Memorial Park, and the National 228 Memorial Museum was opened on February 28, 1997. The Kaohsiung Museum of History also has a permanent exhibit detailing the events of the incident in Kaohsiung. In 2019, the Transitional Justice Commission exonerated those who were convicted in the aftermath.