Improper management of KMT's advance detachment led to The February 28 Incident
At the end of World War II, Japan was defeated and Taiwan was returned to China, to Kuomintang (KMT), the Nationalist Party. At that time, KMT kept its best soldiers in the mainland to fight against the Communist Party, while the rest formed the advance detachment to come to Taiwan and take the island's sovereignty back from the Japanese. They were not aware that Taiwan was then a land with culture and class; sending such kind of army to take over Taiwan was not a brilliant idea.
When people learned Taiwan was returned to the motherland, everyone was thrilled. Representatives from every town and district went to Keelung harbor to welcome the KMT army, but they were disappointed . They saw a spiritless army in untidy uniforms; people felt sorry for them, sympathize them, but also embarrassed by them. KMT's advance detachment was no comparison to the defeated nation's tidy, disciplined and spirited army.
As the KMT soldiers failed to run the government efficiently, plus there was the feeling of dominate and being dominated between KMT's advance detachment, the new immigrants, and the public, the early immigrants, clashes and conflicts occurred and later led to The February 28 Incident break out. Whenever the two sides met, they started killing each other. A Mediate Committee was established to patch up the two sides, but more often than not, misunderstanding and distrust deepened. The Nationalist government panicked, they thought they did not have enough armed forces to suppress the people, so they brought in some troops from mainland, planning to resolve this big headache by armed suppression. Taiwan people on the other hand, robbed firearms and organized their own army to confront with the Nationalist forces. There again, Taiwan went through another catastrophe.
After that, the government felt the need to reeducate the public, the dialect Mandarin was highly promoted throughout the whole island. Even though Mandarin is one of the most commonly spoken language in the world, but the executive committee overlooked the importance of taking up local customs and dialects (i.e. Taiwanese and Hakanese) themselves, so as to show their friendliness and good intention. Many social problems today were rooted back then. The good thing was, a group of legal system experts and economy experts came to Taiwan from the mainland, their expertise redirected people's attention from participating in politics to learning how to make money faster. On the aspect of the Mountain People's culture, it was not valued nor implemented, therefore it had not been passed down from generation to generation fully; it is losing its bright colors.
Taiwan Tati Cultural & Educational Foundation
