參觀國家人權博物館
今天，我決定去新北市京美白色恐怖紀念公園的國家人權博物館參觀，以進一步了解塑造台灣歷史的重要事件。了解台灣的民主之路對我來說很重要，因為直到三個月前來台灣之前，我根本不知道台灣曾經實行過戒嚴！我還驚訝地發現，這座博物館才開放八年，它成立於2018年。
博物館所在的京美拘留所仁愛樓就是當年關押政治異見人士的地方，白色恐怖時期就關在這裡。剛到的時候，那座高聳的混凝土建築群，頂部架著鐵絲網，讓我有些不安。一切都如此逼真，讓我震驚——彷彿真的回到了白色恐怖時期。
這些設施是為強迫勞動而設計的，參觀的時候，我彷彿看到了每天在這種艱苦的環境下工作，不知道什麼時候會被處決。
即使是居住在台灣以外的人也受到了白色恐怖時期的影響。著名台裔美籍記者劉漢明被國民黨政府授權的竹聯成員暗殺。他因撰寫蔣經國（時任台灣總統）的傳記而聞名。他的遇刺成為重大的政治醜聞，美國官員批評國民黨在美國本土組織政治暗殺。
了解政治宣傳如何在監獄中傳播也很有趣。囚犯只能閱讀和觀看經過審查和預先批准的資料，這主要針對印刷媒體。監獄裡有一個報紙閱覽板，上面貼著《中央日報》（國民黨的官方報紙），但所有「敏感」訊息都被剪掉了。囚犯們稱這些報紙為“洞洞報”，因為普通話裡“洞”的發音是“咚”。此外，如果有人想從圖書館借書，監獄當局會在書上蓋上一句中文成語：「不要忘記你們的使命是反抗中國共產黨，收復中國大陸」。令我震驚的是，《中央日報》一直發行到2006年，最終停刊只是因為國民黨無力償還不斷增加的債務。
參觀完監獄後，一個迫切的問題依然縈繞在我心頭：國民黨在策劃了台灣歷史上如此駭人聽聞的時期之後，是如何維持其政治支持的？在我看來，這就像納粹黨改頭換面，今天依然能在德國維持政治支持。這個問題我需要在接下來的時間進一步探究。
Visit to National Human Rights Museum
Today, I decided to visit the National Human Rights Museum in New Taipei City at the Jing-mei White Terror Memorial Park to further my knowledge about influential events that shaped Taiwan’s history. It’s important to me that I’m aware of Taiwan’s path to democracy, as I was unaware Taiwan was ever under martial law until I came here three months ago! I was also shocked to learn that the museum has only been open for eight years, as it was established in 2018.
The actual detention center itself is the Ren-Ai building of Jingmei Detention Center, where political dissidents were housed during the White Terror period. When I first arrived, the imposing concrete complex fitted with barbed wire running along the top made me a little apprehensive. I was shocked at how realistic everything looked - it was as if I had stepped back in time to the actual White Terror period.
The facilities were designed for forced labor, and while I visited, I imagined working in these exhausting conditions on a day to day basis, not knowing if execution was soon to come.
Even those residing outside of Taiwan were affected by the White Terror period. Henry Liu, who was a well-known Taiwanese American journalist, was assassinated by members of the Bamboo Union, which was authorized by the KMT government. He became famous for authoring a biography of Chiang Ching-kuo, who was the president of Taiwan at the time. His assassination became a major political scandal, and American officials were highly critical of the KMT for organizing a political assassination on US soil.
It was also interesting to learn about how political propaganda was dispersed throughout the facility. Inmates were only allowed to read and view censored and preapproved materials, of course, and this largely applied to print media. The prison had a newspaper reading board where newspapers from the Central Daily News (the official newspaper of the KMT) were located, but all “sensitive” information was cut out. The prisoners called these the “Dong Dong” newspapers because the word for hole in Mandarin means dong. In addition, if someone wanted to check out a book from the library, the prison authorities would stamp it with a Chinese idiom that said “Don’t forget your missions are to counterattack against Chinese communists and recover Mainland China”. I was shocked to learn that the Central Daily News remained in print until 2006, and was only closed due to its growing debts that the KMT was unable to maintain.
One pressing question that remains after visiting the site was how the KMT was able to maintain political support after orchestrating such a horrific period in Taiwan’s history. To me, it would be like if the Nazi Party rebranded and continued to maintain political support in Germany today. This is a question I will have to explore further during my remaining time here.
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