CONTENT WARNING: The interview in this episode contains graphic descriptions of torture, self-harm and attempted suicide.
“We have to overcome all the sufferings, all the pains, to let the young generations of Taiwan to learn [about] the past. So that they can protect themselves in the future.”
This was the message Fred Chin returned to again and again during our interview at Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, the former detention centre where he was held for part of his 12 years as a political prisoner.
It’s been over half a century since Fred was detained at Jing-Mei, and almost 40 years since Taiwan transitioned into a democracy from its decades-long rule under martial law — a period known as the White Terror. During this time, which lasted from the 1940s to 1980s, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people were executed, while around 140,000 were detained.
Now in his mid-70s, Fred gives tours at the former detention centre; he sees it as his responsibility to inform people both of his experiences and the realities of the state persecution that occurred during this period. “If they didn’t know the past, what happened to us […] those kind of tragedies might reoccur,” he says.
Fred’s story in Taiwan began in the late 1960s, when he moved there from his home in Malaysia to study. Having been English-educated back home, he struggled to adapt to the Mandarin-speaking country and spent much of his time in the US Information Service (USIS) centre in Tainan, where he could study and refer to materials in English (the US had diplomatic ties with Taiwan until 1979).
In 1970 there was a bombing at the US centre, and two people were injured. Under pressure to find the perpetrators (or at least someone who could take the blame), the authorities zeroed in on Fred the following year and took him into custody.
Following his arrest, the then-21-year-old was detained and brutally tortured for weeks. He was then brought before a military tribunal and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.
Cautionary Tales from the Past
Fred’s interview is longer than the many of the ones I’ve produced for Currents — and that longer run time comes with a particularly harrowing story. It’s a tough listen, with very little comfort or optimism to be had.
I’m also publishing this at a time when it’s hard to escape headlines indicating that more and more places around the world — perhaps most noticeably in the US — are developing authoritarian tendencies.
But while Fred’s experiences stand as a cautionary tale, one can still find a silver lining.
While he went through hell — as did countless others detained and killed during the White Terror — Fred is still around and able to tell his story. It’s one that should be heard, difficult though it is, to remind us of the need to avoid repeating the horrors of such dark periods of history.
