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Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the recent review of Roger Frie’s History Flows Through Us: Germany, The Holocaust, and the Importance of Empathy by Tyger Latham in The Psychoanalytic Quarterly. As a psychiatrist from Taiwan, where the collective memory of historical trauma is a poignant part of our national consciousness, I found the themes of the book resonating deeply with our own experience of the 228 Incident.
The 228 Incident was a crucial and tragic event in Taiwanese history, occurring in February 1947. This unrest began with an altercation between government officials and a local vendor in Taipei and quickly escalated into widespread protests against the Kuomintang-led government’s oppressive and corrupt rule, which took over from Japanese colonial administration after World War II. The government’s response to these protests was severe and violent. Martial law was declared, and military forces were deployed to suppress the uprising. The resultant crackdown was marked by significant loss of life and rights abuses, and the exact number of casualties remains unknown to this day, underscoring the depth of the tragedy and the subsequent trauma it inflicted on the Taiwanese people. This led to the imposition of martial law, which lasted for decades and is referred to as the White Terror period, characterized by severe political repression.
In Taiwan, the 228 Incident is not merely a historical footnote; it is a deep, unhealed wound in our collective psyche. Much like the Holocaust
has left an indelible mark on German history, the 228 Incident continues to shape the identity and the path of reconciliation in Taiwanese society.
Frie’s exploration of the Holocaust through a psychoanalytic lens offers a universal framework for understanding how societies deal with collective trauma. The emphasis on empathy, not just for victims but also for perpetrators and bystanders, is a poignant reminder of the complexities involved in healing and reconciliation. In Taiw