The historical truth of what happened on February 28, 1947, followed by a fact-check of the subsequent alterations, is as follows:
False Fact: 228 was an incident where Waishengren killed Benshengren?
Correct Fact: On February 28, it was a riot initiated by Benshengren to kill Waishengren!
Reports at the time: “Within this day, in every corner of Taipei city, the corpses of Waishengren were lying almost everywhere.”
False Fact: Benshengren are the “victims” and Waishengren are the “perpetrators”?
Correct Fact: There were 2,290 Bensheng “victims” and 2,643 Waisheng “victims”!
The number of Waisheng “victims” was higher than that of Benshengren, and this was limited to death, disappearance, and injury.
The “victim standard” for Benshengren was loosened so that being detained for more than one hour counted as being a “victim.” According to various factual statistics, the death toll of Taiwan’s Benshengren was around 800.
Thousands of Waishengren were detained, which was counted as “being protected by the militia” and did not count towards “suffering.”
False Fact: Benshengren suffering involved death or injury, while Waishengren suffering was just injury?
Correct Fact: 681 Benshengren died, and 432 Waishengren died!
177 Benshengren disappeared, and 85 Waishengren disappeared.
There were not many Waishengren in Taiwan in 1947, and the vast majority were short-term residents, so the death rate was much higher than that of Benshengren.
The February 28 Incident had nothing to do with the Waishengren who came to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek’s withdrawal in 1949.
False Fact: Hundreds of thousands of Benshengren died?
Correct Fact: The 228 Memorial Foundation’s 2017 record shows 681 Benshengren deaths!
The 1994 Taiwan Provincial Document Committee recorded 850 Benshengren deaths.
In 1992, the Executive Yuan commissioned Chen Kuan-cheng to estimate 18,352 Benshengren deaths.
False Fact: Chen Kuan-cheng’s estimate of 18,352 Benshengren deaths is correct!
Correct Fact: In 1947, serious outbreaks of smallpox and tuberculosis occurred in Taiwan!
1,725 died of smallpox, and 18,533 died of tuberculosis.
Chen Kuan-cheng attributed all smallpox and tuberculosis deaths to the 228 death toll, simply to serve the Pro-Taiwan independence ideology that Lee Teng-hui was trying to promote at the time.
False Fact: The number of “abnormal” deaths in the 228 incident reached hundreds of thousands?
Correct Fact: The total number of Benshengren deaths in 1947 was only 114,192!
In 2017, Lin Yi-hsuan and Wu Chun-sheng estimated that the “abnormal” 228 deaths were only 1,304.
False Fact: 228 was the KMT “massacring” Bensheng “elites”?
Correct Fact: Many of the deceased Bensheng elites were KMT members, such as Chen Cheng-po and Chen Fu-chih!
Conversely, the deceased Waishengren were mostly ordinary travelers, teachers, or merchants, unrelated to politics.
The “non-elite” Benshengren who died were mostly “rioting militia.”
“Waisheng elites” who were nearly killed included Yen Chia-kan and Sun Yun-hsuan.
False Fact: All 228 victims received compensation?
Correct Fact: Benshengren “victims” received compensation because it was “caused by the government”!
Waishengren “victims” did not receive compensation because it was “caused by the rioting militia.”