Ông Thiam-ting (王添灯) was born in Taipei on June 24th of 1901. As such, Ong was born under Japanese rule. His father was a tea farmer, and his grand father was a traditional medicine doctor. Ong was a straight shooter and calls it as he sees it. After graduating from Ko gakko (公學校 elementary school for Taiwanese), Ong went on to work as the Chief of General Affairs (庶務主任) at the District Office (役場) of Shinten Shō (新店庄, present day Xindian), and was later transferred to Taipei City’s district office.
Ong made a name for himself for making anti-Japanese and anti-corruption comments while holding a public office position. He was active in Taiwanese self-governance movements, and joined organizations such as Taiwanese Cultural Association (台灣文化協會) and Taiwan Local Self-governance Alliance (台灣地方自治聯盟). For that Japanese police arrested him on multiple occasions and eventually cost him his job. Despite that Ong continued to be vocal and critical of Japan’s rule.
The Japanese government then went another route to get Ong on their side. They invited Ong to see the Emperor of Japan. Emperor Showa gave Ong a katana and told Ong “Taiwan is very fortunate to have a patriot like you. Japan values people like you.” When Ong returned to Taiwan alive, he told his sister “As angry as the Japanese are with me, they at least still understand reason.”
After WW2 was over, Ong welcomed the arrival of KMT trustee forces on American planes and ships. For his active and vocal anti-Japanese role, Ong was highly valued by the KMT. He was first appointed to the director of Youth of the Three Principles Group at Taipei (三民主義青年團), then elected to the Taiwan province’s senate (臺灣省參議會, 1946 to 1951).
As a senator Ong saw first hand of the KMT’s corruption. He would often lambaste KMT officials at the senate and his unwavering directness made him many enemies within the KMT. The most famous scandal Ong uncovered was the Sugar Incident. The Japanese transferred 150 thousand tonnes of sugar to the KMT trusteeship, and those sugar vanished as if dissolved in water. Ong discovered top KMT officials secretly shipped the sugar to Shanghai and sold them. The money went into their own pockets. This reveal earned him the nickname of Iron-faced Senator amongst the Taiwanese people.
Later, KMT leaders made several comments denying the Taiwanese’s rights to hold public positions, citing Japanese’s Kominka policy (皇民化政策 Japanization) have turned Taiwanese into Japanese slaves and claimed that Taiwanese’s obsession with abiding the rules is a sign of servility, and the lack of competitiveness. Ong was offended by such comments and wrote an editorial named “To Waisheng Sirs” (告外省人諸公) which further alienated him from the KMT.
In 1946, Ong wrote a news article pointing out Kaohisung police were oppressing local farmers. That finally triggered the wrath of KMT operatives. They planned a series of lawsuits attempting to censor and discredit Ong and his newspaper.
When 228 broke out in 1947, Ong’s friends suggested Ong to go into hiding. Ong said “Even the Emperor of Japan didn’t harm me, the government of our fatherland would do no such thing.” Not only did Ong not go into hiding, he took an active role in the 228 Incident Action Committee (二二八事件處理委員會), which was established to restore peace.
Ong was wrong, of course. KMT soldiers came for him before day break on March 11th, and dragged Ong away in his sleep.
Zhang Mu-tao (張慕陶), the regiment commander of the 4th MP corp (憲兵第四團團長) was in charge of Ong’s torture. Ong would continue to criticize Zhang and KMT’s actions as blood was streaming down his face. So Zhang ordered soldiers to douse gasoline on Ong and burned him alive. Ong’s burnt corpse was then ordered to be thrown into the Tamsui river. Ong left behind 2 sons and 4 daughters, all were still under aged at the time.
References:
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8E%8B … B%E7%81%AF
facebook.com/photo.php?fbid … =1&fref=nf
taiwantt.org.tw/taiwanspirit/frame/frame05.htm
