The 28th day of February had been a public holiday for as long as I could remember. It was a bonus day off after the long spring break – odd but nice.
We were supposed to remember the civilians who were killed by the government for protesting corruption and advocating democracy in 1947, a day now called Peace Memorial Day. But I never knew how to go about it.
Unlike a typhoon day - when I would curl up at home with a bowl of freezer dumplings while the rain lashed against the window - having a day off to commemorate peace rooted in the distant past seemed abstract and superfluous.
Little did I know that the terrifying period of martial law, kick-started by the 1947 massacre, was only lifted a few years before I was born.
While many in the UK were watching Margaret Thatcher become prime minister, pro–democratic leaders in Taiwan were still being arrested and beaten, including Lin Yi-hsiung.
Injustice sealed?
On 28 February 1980, while Lin’s wife was visiting him in prison, their house was broken into. His mother and twin daughters were stabbed to death. His nine–year–old daughter, Judy, was heavily wounded but survived. The case became known as the Lin Family Murders.
Appalled and outraged, the public was desperate for justice. Newspapers quickly blamed “a big–bearded foreign man”, even though Judy had never described him as such.
With no free press, and with the house under 24–hour police surveillance since Lin’s arrest, many suspected government involvement.
Recently, the current president announced that key evidence had been systematically destroyed, despite attempts to reinvestigate the case. With this, any remaining hope seemed to have evaporated, and injustice sealed.
Perhaps because this tragedy was more recent, or because the details were so vivid, or because I shared the same family name, it felt closer to home.
How many more families were similarly destroyed in 1947?
How can Peace Memorial Day be peaceful when justice remains unresolved?
Commemoration
In the absence of justice, commemoration seems the next best thing. The Lin family’s former home has become the first site designated as “relevant to transitional justice” – meaning it bears witness to past injustice and calls for a different future. Each year, people return not only to mourn, but to acknowledge what has not yet been made right.
"Each year, people return not only to mourn, but to acknowledge what has not yet been made right."
But Judy’s story didn’t end there.
The Taiwanese Presbyterian Church purchased their family home and turned it into a church. With this support, Judy moved to the US with her mother, resolving to take revenge one day.
'God's doing'
Years later, she encountered another survivor of grave injustice, a victim of corrupt authorities. But to her amazement, He not only endured the flogging, the stabbing, the humiliation, and the murder, but He also anticipated them – and could have avoided them all. More astonishingly, He was ready to forgive His offenders.
Slowly but surely, the truth about Jesus Christ began to transform her.
She shared: “God was starting to take away all my hatred and bitterness. I know without a shadow of a doubt that to forgive was impossible for me. This was God’s doing alone.”
She was eventually enabled to forgive the murderer, not through willpower or religious fervour, but because Judy came to see that she too stood among Jesus’ offenders, like all of us. Those who have been forgiven much forgive much.
It could seem that forgiveness is an abandonment of justice. But the heart of Christianity says the opposite.
Perfect justice and kindness
If God were perfectly just – and He is – no one can stand His judgment and still live, because everyone has turned away from Him, failing His perfect standards. But because God is extravagantly kind, He sent His own Son to suffer and die, bearing the judgment we deserve so that we may be forgiven and reconciled to God forever.
Jesus’ death on the cross displays God’s perfect justice and kindness. This is why forgiveness is possible. Judy has found a greater peace, even as Peace Memorial Day has left one wanting.
But what about Judy’s offender, one might ask? He may never be identified this side of heaven, but as one who has submitted to the lordship of her perfect Judge, Judy can trust God’s promise: “Do not say, ‘I’ll pay you back for this wrong!’ Wait for the Lord, and He will avenge you” (Proverbs 20v22). Jesus entered Jerusalem on a humble donkey, but He will return on a white horse, bringing perfect justice against all wrongdoers.
Just as the Lin family home has turned into a church, the murder site is now marked with a cross. The site that wails for the bloodshed of the innocent now points to the greatest victim who was murdered on our behalf. He is risen, and in Him lies peace between God and humankind.
I am still figuring out how to commemorate 28 February, but I know I can celebrate the peace that Christ has achieved, with confidence.
Justice is delayed, but not cancelled. Because of this delay, forgiveness is still on offer – to every victim and offender.
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