Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan abounds with the multiple histories of its complex past. This June has proved to be a typical example, for it was an active month for the Taiwan Prisoner of War (POW) Camps Memorial Society. On June 6, we dedicated the Toroku Prison Camp Memorial at the Gou-ba Elementary School in Douhlio. Then on June 20, we dedicated a memorial to fourteen American airmen who were executed at the former Taipei Prison on June 19, 1945. Both memorials were part of the society's on-going campaign to never forget those who suffered imprisonment in Taiwan. In the complexities of history, these men had fought in World War II for the freedom of their own countries, and they had in their own small way contributed (directly or indirectly) to the eventual democracy that Taiwan enjoys today.

Peng Ming-min is a man who has not only talked the talk, but more importantly walked the walk for Taiwan. A life long advocate of Taiwan's right for self-determination, he recently came out with a new book, "A Perfect Escape." The book recounts how in early 1970 Peng, still under house arrest for publishing the "Declaration of Formosan Self-Salvation" (1964), managed to escape from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) autocratic state control. This was at the height of the KMT's White Terror period and provides much more detail than there was in the brief mention of the escape in Peng's "A Taste of Freedom."