How many sacrificed?
Su Shih-chieh, who graduated from Kaohsiung High four years ago, says that many of the students have heard a teacher there tell the story of how he managed to pass the examination into the school. It seems that this mainlander teacher always loved to joke that originally it was impossible to get into Kaohsiung High on merit alone, but because so many students were killed in the February 28 Incident, he managed to get in as a "replacement." The dubious authenticity of this kind of joke often makes the truth even more blurred.
Ko Chi-hua, who was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after being labelled a "rebel," recalls that when the February 28 Incident broke out in Taipei the school carried on lessons as normal for the first few days. Later, after the establishment of a "revolutionary headquarters," government troops began to surround the school. Sporadic fighting broke out, but there were no casualties. Later on, Yen Tsai-tse, a student who had passed the examinations for the English department of Taiwan Normal University just the year before but had not yet gone to register, took over as leader of the student corps. In broad daylight he led students in an attempt to attack government troops at the railway station. He was killed before they had even attacked their target, and the students were scattered. A section who had hidden in a nearby hotel were killed by the pursuing soldiers. "This was one of the battles in which many Kaohsiung High students were killed. The numbers are not clear, but not as high as the several hundred rumored," says Ko Chi-hua.
No investigation or punishment:
Ko Chi-hua says that the Kaohsiung High students who were involved in the February 28 Incident did not seem to have been investigated and punished, and all eventually returned to their studies. "It is said that the Minister of Defense at the time, Pai Tsung-hsi, ordered that the students involved in the incident should not be investigated and punished, so nothing happened to them."
Wang Chia-chi, who replaced Lin I-ho as the principal in 1948, says th
at he did not receive any instructions or demands at the time that he must pay special attention to students who had been involved in the incident.
However, although the students were not investigated and punished, in the ten days after lessons were resumed, troops would carry out one or two public executions daily in front of the railway station. The students' bags were searched and there was a threatening air to it all.
Do the scars remain?
Within the campus of Kaohsiung High, the old stadium left over from the Japanese occupation is still preserved intact. At the time, if served as a base camp for the resistance army. It is said that on the walls there are still traces left by the bullets of the February 28 Incident. Yet interested students who have gone to look for the marks over the years have not found much. Some people say that when the incident was over, the principal hurriedly replaced the bullet-marked bricks. Yet Wang Chia-chi, who took over as principal, maintains, "I never came across those walls."
There are also those who say that the bullet marks were covered over with cement. The old stadium wall which faces the railway station does actually have some old cement marks now. Are they actually old marks left by patching up the ageing bricks, or are they the scars of war? Nobody really knows.
Just graduated from Kaohsiung High this year and smoothly passing the university entrance examination, Chuan Kuan-chang is one of the few people who have actually gone to look for the traces of the February 28 Incident at the school. But the confused information and rumors have left him baffled. He points at some old bricks with radiating marks and says, "I have heard that these are bullet traces." But he is not too certain. Most people do not even know that there are suspected bullet marks on the wall.
The truth still awaits verification:
In 1991, to get to the historical background of the February 28 Incident, Kaohsiung High asked Li Hsiao-feng, a teacher at The World College of Journalism and Communications who has carried out special research on this period of history, to give a lecture. In the meeting many students who were interested in the period asked questions. However, in their general import, most of the questions revolved around problems such as why the February 28 Incident happened and who was responsible for it. As for what really happened that year in the school, it was not too clear.
Graduating into the history department of National Tsing Hua University this year, Su Shih-chieh of Kaohsiung High says of her deep feelings" "That year when I heard about the huge sacrifices made by the former students of Kaohsiung High at the time of the February 28 Incident, I was actually extremely angry." However, aside from her anger, Su Shih-chieh recognizes that she must maintain her academic ideals. With her great interest in history, although she is a native Taiwanese, her feelings mean that she does not dare make Taiwan history her special area of research. "That would make me lose my objectivity," she says.
Speaking of the students of Kaohsiung High today, most of them do know that 40 years ago their predecessors opposed the government army on the campus. But perhaps it is just too long ago! More people do not particularly try to trace back the events of the past. In the end, the joint university examination is the most important thing. Is it not?
[Picture Caption]
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The scars on the concrete of the old stadium wall are said to be bulletmarks left over from the February 28 Incident.
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Did the March 14 Incident at Kaohsiung High stir up the provincial complex in the school?