Watering the Roots: Overseas Taiwanese and Transitional Justice

How the Overseas Taiwanese Diaspora Can Assist Transitional Justice

Taiwan’s martial law ended about 30 years ago, yet memories of what life was like during the White Terror still linger in the hearts and minds of those Taiwanese Americans who were impacted. Although they are no longer in Taiwan or may be several generations removed from Taiwan, they also hold on to hope that the historical truth about White Terror is revealed and never forgotten. To ensure that hope, Taiwan’s democracy needs to continue to strengthen, and Taiwan’s Transitional Justice Commission (TJC) must successfully carry out its mission.

The roots of Taiwan’s distinct identity, democracy and commitment to human rights date back to as early as the late-1890’s, starting from Taiwan’s complex history of colonization and living under authoritarianism. Despite Taiwan’s significant triumphs as a vibrant democracy today, the people of Taiwan still live with unanswered questions about the past. On May 31, 2018, President Tsai Ing-wen formally launched the TJC, aimed at addressing these questions and facilitating achieving truth and justice for the people of Taiwan. According to Article 2 of The Act on Promoting Transitional Justice, the key activities and main tasks of the TJC are:

1. Providing for public access to political archival records.
2. Removing authoritarian symbols and preserving sites where injustices were
committed.
3. Redressing judicial wrongs, restoring historical truth, and promoting social reconciliation.
4. Settling and utilizing ill-gotten party assets [those not addressed in previous Acts]
5. Handling other matters pertaining to transitional justice.

The Taiwanese American community can work on connecting with civil society organizations in Taiwan to brainstorm on how to make political archives more readily available. By doing so, not only will Taiwan’s history be shared with people in Taiwan, but with people around the world. It would also serve as a platform for Taiwan as a whole to increase international engagement with the international community.

“Atmosphere of social paranoia”

Taiwan under the KMT’s authoritarian regime and martial law created an “atmosphere of social paranoia” among fellow neighbors, friends, and even within families. Several overseas Taiwanese graduate students studying in the United States started to notice what was happening in their home country and decided to assist anti-KMT activists in Taiwan in any way possible. For example, according to the paper “Patterns of Personal and Political Life Among Taiwanese-Americans” by Linda Gail Arrigo, they translated English books about non-violent resistance and democracy into Mandarin, and helped smuggle them back into Taiwan. They secretly helped provide educational materials on how to establish underground radio and television stations in Taiwan, and assisted with the distribution of underground publications among their friends in the United States. Empowered by the information they were receiving from Taiwan, they were active in advocating for Taiwan within their local communities in the United States. In 1982, the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) was created by leaders within the overseas Taiwanese community to specifically lobby the United States Congress and to generate public awareness about Taiwan’s situation. FAPA chapters are still active to this day across the United States.

Overseas Taiwanese activists were the most vocal against the atrocities that the KMT government was committing, because their connections in Taiwan could not be. Their activism heavily advocated for a democratic, free and independent Taiwan. As explained by a former Taiwanese expat (who later became a representative to Japan) Fu-chen Lo in his autobiography:

…I deeply believed we were simply a group of intellectuals inspired by the democratic air we breathed in the US. We decided to do something about the unjust system oppressing our homeland. We couldn’t not do anything. We all wanted the best for our homelands, and to do so, we had to help bring about change.

In response, some overseas Taiwanese students studying in the United States who were pro-KMT were instructed by the KMT government to spy on fellow Taiwanese within their local Taiwanese communities, whether it be at their universities or churches:

There was a deep pall of fear; reportedly, Taiwanese students would not dare to borrow from the library George Kerr’s account of the 1947 massacres, Formosa Betrayed, finally published in 1966, for fear that the circulation list could be obtained by spies, and they would turn the pages with chopsticks so as not to leave fingerprints.

Yet, despite their fears, these overseas Taiwanese activists continued to support their connections in Taiwan. Findings of any activists were reported back to the KMT government on Taiwan, creating a “blacklist” of overseas Taiwanese who were marked as dissidents and threats to the KMT’s authoritarian regime. Overseas Taiwanese placed on the blacklist were banned from returning home to Taiwan, and faced imprisonment or execution in Taiwan if they did.

There are no official dates of when the blacklist started, but the impact it had on the blacklisted overseas Taiwanese was lasting; the “damage done… was more psychological and mental rather than physical.” Because of their activism in the United States, their family members still in Taiwan suffered various repercussions, whether being jailed, constantly interrogated, or not being able to advance in their careers. The blacklist is an example of how the KMT regime managed to instill fear and restrict the freedoms of the Taiwanese people, not only domestically, but also abroad.

Today, many Taiwanese families both in the United States and Taiwan are still heavily impacted by the remaining effects of the blacklist. To date, there has been no formal explicit public documentation about the implementation or enforcement of the blacklist, nor any form of public apology to the overseas Taiwanese community who were impacted by the blacklist.

“You left Taiwan…But Taiwan never left you”

The TJC should reach out to overseas Taiwanese communities, specifically in the United States, to share their stories and experiences of when they were blacklisted. Similar to how the diaspora provided resources and assistance to the local Taiwanese during the White Terror, they can also help with Taiwan’s transitional justice because they provide a unique perspective about what happened and a different angle about how it has impacted their lives.

Additional information received from the overseas Taiwanese diaspora can help further increase public understanding of the KMT authoritarian regime’s impact to the Taiwanese domestically and abroad. Taiwanese who studied in or immigrated to the United States during the White Terror period would be able to assist the TJC towards issuing an accurate report about blacklisted dissidents as well as the KMT’s overseas network of informants. The information will be able to help the TJC include the names and experiences of blacklisted individuals into their final report.

Through collaboration across borders, Taiwanese American communities and Taiwan’s civil society can create innovative ways to seek and disclose facts about the White Terror and Taiwan’s journey to democracy. For instance, the Taiwan National Treasure (TNT) is a transparency activism project spearheaded by Taiwanese Americans based in New York City; TNT enables individuals to digitally archive Taiwan-related documents from the United States National Archives into an online platform. Utilizing this kind of technology towards the TJC would facilitate the accessibility of obtained historical information and archived documents.

Taiwanese American filmmaker Christina Hu has spearheaded a series of documentaries by interviewing blacklisted individuals that still live in the United States to share their stories. Hu, who grew up in Taiwan under martial law and eventually moved to the United States, remembers what life was like while Taiwan was still under authoritarian rule. These memories serve as a driving factor to why she continues to work on these documentaries. According to Hu:

It’s pretty much true for all immigrants, I think, that when you know your life can
be so different, and especially for Taiwanese, knowing that you are who you are
today because you left Taiwan, but [that] Taiwan never left you.

The overseas Taiwanese community working together with the TJC as well as non-governmental organizations in Taiwan present a unique opportunity to provide thorough and readily available information about the White Terror. Transparency activism projects, such as the Taiwan National Treasure, or documentaries such as Christina Hu’s about the blacklist, could all be used towards facilitating understanding of Taiwan’s history and ultimately assist the TJC. This bottom-up approach can also serve as a facilitator in the long process of reconciliation and eventual healing.

By receiving historical information from individuals or families of those who were blacklisted, not only would it contribute towards truth-seeking, but also towards eventual reconciliation and potential healing. Formal acknowledgement of the blacklist and recognition of blacklisted individuals’ efforts and the danger it put them in could help them slowly come to terms with the past, and gain closure. Additionally, the TJC should consider allocating some of their budget towards issuing proportionate reparations and compensation for these people. The inclusion of anecdotes from the blacklisted overseas Taiwanese community into the TJC also could serve as a way of hopefully ensuring that something of this nature will never happen again.

As mentioned in “On Good Terms: Clarifying Reconciliation” by David Bloomfield, “lack of attention to the legacy of past violence will undermine even the best democracy.” This quote resonates strongly with Taiwan. The mix of backgrounds within Taiwanese society, in addition to decades of unanswered questions and outside interference, has resulted into a cross-generational nationwide identity crisis. Taiwan as the international orphan, one with no membership in the United Nations and one with no voice in the global community, needs to first collectively gain a better understanding about its own complex history and work towards the creation of a unified narrative on Taiwanese identity. Transitional justice can serve as a first step towards resolving Taiwan’s identity crisis because it will water the roots of Taiwan’s distinct identity and democracy, allowing Taiwan to strengthen and grow. The creation of a unified Taiwanese narrative will help galvanize the Taiwanese to confidently and unapologetically work towards building their nation together.

(Feature photo by Chris Nicodemo)