NHRM political prisoner exhibition underway on Green Island

2020/05/14

An exhibition shedding light on abuse of political prisoners during Taiwan’s White Terror era is underway at the Green Island White Terror Memorial Park in southeastern Taiwan’s Taitung County.
 
 Organized by the National Human Rights Museum, the yearlong event displays letters, notes, photos and other related documents of dissidents incarcerated or executed from 1953 to 1956. The exhibition is divided into five sections spanning the opening of a labor camp for political prisoners to the outbreak and suppression of a prison uprising on the island as well as a re-examination of the historical events.
 
 NHRM Director Chen Chun-hung said the exhibition aims to promote reflection on human rights violations committed in the name of national security. It provides a rare opportunity for deeper public understanding as the treatment of political prisoners is seldom discussed by scholars, he added.
 
 According to curator Lin Chuan-kai, this is the first time previously classified files and survivors’ accounts are openly accessible. It is hoped that the documents on display will help uncover historical truths while paying tribute to lives sacrificed during the incident, he said.
 
 Running May 8 through April 25, 2021, the exhibition is paired with a lecture series held at the NHRM’s Green Island White Terror Memorial Park and New Taipei City-based Jing-mei Human Rights Memorial and Cultural Park, as well as venues in the cities of Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung in central and southern Taiwan.
 
 Administered by the Ministry of Culture, NHRM is the country’s primary facility for collecting and preserving historical documents and materials relating to human rights from the end of 50 years of Japanese colonial rule Aug. 15, 1945, to the lifting of martial law five years after Taiwan proper in outlying Kinmen and Matsu islands Nov. 7, 1992.

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)