我的父親出生於雲林縣斗南鄉下一個極端貧困的家庭. 後來二次世界大戰中在一位好心的日本基督徒幫助之下, 到日本本土的東京市工作, 及唸書. 這位日本基督徒的目的, 是希望他能夠避開在台灣被軍方徵調到前線去充當砲灰的命運.

My father was born in Town of Tounan, Yunlin County, Taiwan to an extremely poor family during the Japanese occupation. Toward the end of World War II, a kind Japanese Christian helped him to find work in Tokyo and to study there. By doing so, the kind Japanese Christian hoped that my father could avoid the fate of being drafted by the Japanese military in Taiwan to fight in the war front and becoming one of the meaningless deaths.

二次世界大戰後, 他回到了台灣. 因為失去了雙親, 在戰後極度貧困無以生計的情況下, 只好入警察學校受訓, 找飯吃. 後來他曾經昇任為屏東地區的最高警察主管之一. 能夠在毫無人際關係又非常貧困的情況下位居警方系統的要職, 在當時台灣人的社會中是很少見的. 更少見的是, 他一生中在國民黨要脅下堅持不入黨, 也不賄賂上級, 卻還能夠保住職位. 這可能是因為當時國民黨在內戰之中, 還沒有時間派出中國人接手, 也找不出受過高等教育的人願意到屏東地區去任公職. 所以才罕見地任用了他做地區警察的高階主管. 當時的警察是時常沒有薪水的. 中國上級指示: 薪水, 要向管區的民眾需索. 但是, 他寧可餓著肚子, 也堅持不向民眾需索所謂的 "薪水".

After World War II, my father returned to Taiwan. My grand parents had passed away and he was facing extreme poverty; as a result, he had no choice but entered the police academy to survive. After a short training, he was assigned one of the top positions in charge of a police department in the Pingtung County area. This was rather rare for a Taiwanese who was poor and had no connections to be placed in such a top position within the police system totally controlled by KMT when it took over Taiwan. However, more rare was that he refused to become a KMT member throughout his life, nor did he bribe his superiors to keep his job. The only reason I can think of for this to happen is that KMT was still heavily involved in fighting its civil war against CCP at the time, and KMT was not able to find enough Chinese to fill every position for the time being, while other highly educated Taiwanese were not willing to relocate to such a remote area in the south tip of Taiwan. At the time, a police officer often had no salary. The Chinese superior of my father asked him to take "protection fees" from local people as his "salary", but he would rather go hungry than getting his "salary" this way.

228的時候他駐紮在屏東地區為高階主管之一, 並且負責保管當地的警械庫. 228過後久有一天, 一大群當地的學生組成了義軍. 他們蜂湧而至包圍了駐在所, 要脅要我父親交出警械庫. 我的父親知道這些學生這樣一來, 一定會立刻被軍方消滅, 於是好言相勸. 基於同是台灣人的立場, 那一群人數數百人的學生就被他說服而解散了.

On Feb. 28, 1947, my father was ordered to safe guard the storage of police firearms. A few days after, a group of local students formed a resistance force to fight KMT. They surrounded the police department and threatened my father to hand over the firearms. My father knew that these students were no match to the war-hardened KMT army and they would be completely wiped out if they were to fight. He persuaded them to disband with pleads based on a perspective of a fellow Taiwanese.

過了不久當局果然來追查這個事變, 並且要當時的主管, 我的父親交出這群學生的名單. 這時, 雖然他知道這批學生義軍是屏東當地哪些人的兒子. 但是此時此刻他卻冒著自身被查辨甚或被槍決的危險, 堅持地說: 他完全不知道任何人. 因為在當時風聲鶴唳的情況下, 搶刼警械庫是多麼嚴重的事. 毫無疑問地, 這群學生加上所有被牽扯出來的所有關係的人等, 如果被他交出去, 就立刻會被槍斃. 與其屏東地區這麼多人被牽連槍斃, 還不如自己一個人犧牲.

Sure enough, soon after, the KMT authority showed up to investigate the incident , and demanded my father to hand over a list of these students. Although he knew the parents of these students, he insisted that he did not know any of them, risking his own life, because he knew these students would be executed immediately as soon as he revealed their names. He had decided that he would rather sacrifice one life of his own than causing many deaths in his district.

果不其然過了不久, 當時台灣南部他的管區外一些参與類似事變的義勇軍, 都悉數被國民黨槍決了.

Afterward, my father learned that many similar attempts to invade police firearms storages occurred in other districts in southern Taiwan, and KMT had all these students shot.

這好像是冥冥之中神的安排. 就像是當年那位日本基督徒拯救了他的命一樣: 我的父親, 因為基於一時的愛心而冒著自己的生命危險, 在偶然之間, 他也同樣地另外拯救了屏東地區數百名學生的性命.

Like a destiny in the hands of God, my father was able to save the lives of hundreds of students in the Pingtung area by risking his own life, the very life saved a few years earlier by the kind Japanese Christian with the same compassion.

60多年來, 因為怕國民黨特務的追查, 他從來沒有向外界透露此事. 只是多年前曾向自己家人描述過這個事變的過程. 而我們自己也不想惹事生非, 也從來沒有向任何人透露過這件事.我的父親, 在事變過後不久就立刻離開了警界, 並且在白色恐怖下數度因為其他事件與國民黨當局衝突, 而長期入獄過.

For over 60 years , for fear of probing by KMT's secret police, my father had never disclosed this event to anybody outside of the family. Many years ago, he told us what had happened and we also kept our mouths shut to avoid troubles. My father quitted the police force shortly after the incident. He was jailed for several years during the White Terror era due to some other conflicts with the KMT authorities.

但是這一切都過去了. 就在剛才美西228凌晨, 也剛好就在台北228的晚上, 我接到在台北的大弟的越洋電話.我94歲的父親數小時前在新北市一個醫院裏, 安詳地往生了.

願他安息在神的懷抱裏.

But all these had passed. In the early morning of Feb. 28, US west coast time, or the late night of Feb. 28 in Taipei , I received an overseas phone call from my brother, informing me that my 94 -year-old father had passed away peacefully a few hours before at a hospital in New Taipei City.

May he rest in God's arms.

 

2014年2月28日凌晨泣書
Written in 2-28-2014 Early Morning
( Translated by Jay Tu )