Transition without Justice, or Justice without History: Transitional Justice in Taiwan

Abstract

Depending on their particular historical-political situations, new democratic regimes have adopted different strategies to tackle the problems of transitional justice, such as how to deal with the perpetrators of the former regime, how to compensate victims, and how to rectify the history of that traumatic past. This essay discusses how Taiwan's unique approach to the problems-reparations for victims but not holding anyone accountable, much less prosecuting the perpetrators-has been affected by the mode of democratic transition, the ethnic situation, ”the moment of repression,” and other factors. Moreover, in Taiwan, the historical records of atrocities received little attention. Contending that the historical memory of the authoritarian past has an important role to play in the civic education for a democratic citizenry, this essay also calls for rendering truth to history, but in a way that can bridge the ethnic divisions in the historical memory.