President Ma Ying-jeou says the government did not and will not allow anyone to remove the 228 Incident from history textbooks. He was speaking Wednesday with college students.
The 228 Incident is an anti-government uprising that broke out in 1947. The Kuomintang (KMT) government suppressed the uprising, leaving tens of thousands of civilians dead and marking the beginning of the KMT’s White Terror rule.
The president is a former chairman of the KMT, which is now Taiwan’s ruling party. He said it was actually part of his campaign platform to have the incident included in textbooks.
President Ma explains the KMT’s stance on the issue.
“I think a government must recognize, apologize and right its wrongdoings of the past," said Ma.
"That has always been our attitude when meeting with the victims of the 228 Incident," he said. "It’s impossible for me to remove the incident from textbooks.
Ma said there is no evidence to show that the 228 Incident has been removed from history textbooks. On the contrary, he said, the tragedy is a focal point in the textbooks.