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cious, the butt of many jokes in later years, but there couldn't have been many national anthems sung with as much tearful passion. They gathered what they could in the way of musical instruments and taught the town's folk how to sing the national anthem, in the temple courtyard, in assembly halls or in empty lots, always with a large national flag hanging in the background. Men's voices, women's voices, children's voices, old people's voices; the sound of the national anthem echoed in every corner, in every port. At this same period of time, the song Righteous Army March' also entered the airwaves. The townspeople sang it too because it was a song about the courageous Chinese Army, with no inkling that the song would later become the national anthem of the Chinese Communist regime, the People's Republic of China. The words of the march moved many people to tears:
Rise! Do not remain enslaved.
Let's build a new Great Wall with our own blood!
Then, there were new songs written in Taiwan: Today Taiwan celebrates a great day. Above is the blue sky and white sun. Six million people share in the joy Food and drink to show welcome.
The tousle-haired, young men on the podium cut heroic and manly figures as they stood and waved their batons. To the people present, they symbolized the brilliant future of Taiwan.
The young people also helped with the town's clean-up, which had become unkept during the war years: weeds on the no longer
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needed air shelters, long neglected potholes filled with festering water. Youde and his friends divided areas among themselves and gathered townspeople, even grade school children to tackle the clean-up. Every morning, with bamboo brooms and hoes in their hands, they persevered. In just a few weeks, the town was spruced up, nearly unrecognizable from its old self. Also, the young men and women started a class to study the Three People's Principles and to study Mandarin Chinese. They happily studied the language of their motherland along with its political ideas.
To a Taiwanese youth like Youde, the sky was truly blue with the white sun, ch'ing-t'ien-pai-jih, just like the symbol of the national flag, and the whole world was filled to the brim with beautiful hope.
They were totally unaware that a fate, more cruel than that of 'before Restoration' was waiting for them in the wings.
13. Ah ! Blue Sky White Sun (Ch'ing-t'ien-pai-jih)
Youde finished writing about their activities during the exhilarating months following the Restoration. He hesitated at the mention of one certain event. Although it had no relevance to his case, it was just the example to show how the Taiwanese 'sweet potatoes' had loved their motherland at the time. Nothing bad can possibly come of it anyway, Youde thought and decided to write about it. The event was that in the midst of the joyous frenzy following the Restoration, three anti-Japanese heroes returned to Putzu from the
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Tainan prison. All three were Youde's older schoolmates. In May of 1939, two years after the onset of the Sino-Japanese war, the three were arrested by the Japanese secret police for sedition and were later sentenced to long prison terms: the leader, Huang K'un, to fifteen years, Li Chin-min, also to fifteen years, and Huang Chia-tsung to twelve years.
At this time, the three had spent six years of their youthful lives in prison. When they were arrested, Huang K'un was a sophomore at Tainan Second High School while both Li Chin-min and Huang Chia-tsung were students at Tainan Teachers School. All three were eighteen years old. The three had taken blood vows and sworn their allegiance to the motherland of China and had taken to meeting in the deserted public cemetery where they sang the Nationalist national anthem and studied the Three People's Principles. This went on at a time when the Japanese Imperial Army was striking advance after advance on the Chinese mainland and the town was staging a 'victory parade' of lanterns. To most people, it was inconceivable that the Chinese army would one day set foot on Taiwanese soil, yet supposedly the three had sworn to respond from behind Japanese lines once the Chinese army landed. No wonder they were branded 'non-citizens' and subjected to repeated beatings and long prison sentences. If the war had lasted a little longer, they likely would have died in prison of physical abuse and malnutrition.
Learning of the return of the three men, Youde and his friends, each with flags in their hands, hurried over to the train station. The train station was located in the southern outskirts of town, a free-standing, white structure that belonged to the sugar company.
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This place must have been a memorable place for the three men. Back then, when the time came to return to school after the semester recess, the town's boys and girls, wicker trunks in tow, in their school uniforms and school hats, would arrive at the station one or even two hours ahead of the train's departure time, as this was conceivably the only place where boys and girls were able to smile at each other and exchange a few words. And all through the semester, the boys would be sustained by remembering the few words 'she' had spoken.
Now, on this day, several of the girls from the old days were also at the station, among them a lady with a little girl who was holding a carefully arranged spray of flowers. The members of the Loyalty Tong arrived with huge drums and gongs loaded in a push cart.
The narrow-gage railroad car slid into the platform with a high-pitched whistle. Immediately the sounds of firecrackers, drums and gongs assaulted the ears of those present. Everybody was shouting 'Banzai! Banzai!' as they wildly waved the flags. Amidst the thunderous welcome, the three men descended onto the platform. Huang K'un, who used to be on the school tennis team, walked with a limp. His pale face and hands and bony body told of the six years of suffering. But, his moistened eyes were clear and shone with brilliance. The three men also could not stop waving their flags as they exchanged handshakes and said thanks to the people there. Shouts of 'Banzai' continued. The little girl ran up and presented the flowers. Applause. Huang K'un picked up the little girl, large tear drops burst out from his eyes.
Finally, Huang K'un put the little girl down. He took off the
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tennis cap he had on, threw it into the air and shouted at the top of his lungs, "It's a blue sky and a white sun! Ch'ing-t'ien-pai-jih".
Without a second thought, Youde and his friends also threw their hats into the air and screamed, "Ch'ing-t'ien-pai-jih! It's a blue sky and a white sun!"
Their voices reached heaven and earth. Their faces were wet with tears.
Then the world was undoubtedly filled with blue sky and white sun.
Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945. Between the surrender and Oct.25 of the same year when the Nationalist Chinese government arrived to take over Taiwan, Taiwan had no government. It was a time of anarchy. Yet, it truly was a time of blue sky and white sun.
14. Drama Society and Friendship Association
There was a knock at the door. T'ien went to open the door. Two men stepped in, a chubby man answered to the name of Su and another to Hung who wore wire-rim glasses.
'Ah -' Wang stood up with a big loud yawn.
"What? Still writing?" Fat Su muttered.
At the door, Wang whispered something to Fat Su then left the room with T'ien. The door was again locked from inside. The two replacements sat down across from Youde. Hung with the wire-rim glasses threw a pack of cigarettes on the desk. A favorite treat-
merit, it seemed.
"Write only the truth. Lies would soon be found out anyway." Fat Su said somewhat menacingly.
Youde nodded and continued to write. There was not a sentence of falsehood in what he had written. Now, he proceeded cautiously to write about his motives in forming the Taiwan Drama Society and about its various activities. Youde realized that if the Drama Society were taken to be a Communist front organization, he would probably not escape the death sentence. Most of the campus organizations at the time were in fact Communist fronts and that is the reason that only very few of the leaders are still living today.
During the latter part of the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan, the use of the Taiwanese language was prohibited in all levels of schools and, as the 'Japanization Program' raged, there were even people who proudly acknowledged the fact that they were not able to speak Taiwanese. After the Restoration, the Taiwanese language was used in schools for a very short period, but was soon again banned in the name of 'National Language Advancement.' Through neglect and mistreatment over the years, the language lacked written words for many expressions and had also become vulgar. The Drama Society's stated intent was to advance Taiwanese language and culture - it engaged in the research of lost words and strived to elevate its literary expressions. Youde was the founder. He drafted the by-laws, assembled the members and was elected its president unanimously.
By then, the communist students had gradually infiltrated various campus groups.  Before long, they took over the leadership
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roles and showed their true colors. Because the Taiwan Drama Society was clearly associated with the Taiwanese language, its members were all Taiwanese - there was no room for the mainland students with questionable backgrounds.
Before the February 28th Incident of 1947, the students were mostly calm, dissatisfied though they might be. However, angered by the massacre during the incident and the ever-worsening corruption in the government, they became active in anti-government activities. Already, the fervent hope raised by the Restoration had gradually turned to disappointment. Now after the incident, despairing students looked to the new regime on the mainland for hope. What the Taiwanese had wished for was a strong regime, regardless of ideology, that was able to topple the utterly corrupt government. Perhaps that was exactly what happened on the mainland; otherwise, how did one explain the rapid advance of the Communists?
One by one, the innocent Taiwanese students were absorbed into the Communist cells, each consisting of only three or four people so that only members of the same cell know about each other's involvement. At every campus assembly, anti-government speeches were made. Plays that satirized the government were performed. The Communist songs were openly sung. The campus was buried in anti-government hand bills and large-character wall posters. Thus it was not surprising that the Taiwan Drama Society had in its ranks more than ten card-carrying members of the Communist Party.
On the other hand, there were the Kuomintang's professional students who secretly informed on the activities of the fellow stu-
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dents. Some two-faced creatures would bad mouth the government like Communists, while in fact working for the Kuomintang.
The Taiwan Drama Society, for its debut, staged the mainland playwright Ts'ao Yu's 'The Sun Rise' in Taiwanese. It was a great success. The tragic story, a piece of proletarian literature, depicted the gulf separating the rich from the poor. The Communist students especially clapped in a loud ovation. As it turned out, the playwright Ts'ao Yu turned Communist a year later and the play was banned after that. Youde explained that his intention to perform the play was to introduce well-known literature from the motherland to Taiwan. The next production of the group was Takeo Arishima's 'Death of the Stutterer' ('Domomata no shi'), a play whose tenor was rather incongruent with the tumultuous campus. Youde translated and acted in this play. Aside from the content of the play, Youde had wanted to demonstrate that the Taiwanese language, just like other languages, could be used in refined literary works.
In the same year that the Drama Society was founded, the Student Friendship Association was formed in Putzu. Youde was elected its president also. About sixty college students and over one hundred high school students joined the association. Huang Lieh-tang was the only college holdout. It was surmised later that he had already joined the Communist Party at the time. During the election of the president, Yu-kun had highly praised Youde for the organizational skills and acting talents he had shown leading the Taiwan Drama Society and had strongly recommended Youde's election. Wen-bang became the treasurer; Che-fu the activity director and Bin-lang the set designer. Yu-kun, Wen-bang, Che-fu and
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Bin-lang all joined the Communist Party soon after this time.
Judging from what had happened, it was fortunate that Youde, instead of Yu-kun, was elected the association's president. If it were the other way around, the Friendship Association probably would have been marked as a Communist front organization and its entire student membership jailed.
The Friendship Association put on performances in rented theaters when the members were home for summer vacation: choral singing, dances, also plays like "The Sun Rise', 'Return Southward' by T'ien Han, another Chinese playwrights. In the days before the advent of television, the town folk gladly paid to see the shows. As a result the ticket sales exceeded expenses, creating a surplus which they donated to the missions for poor children.
Pleased with himself, Youde further adapted the hit movie 'King's Row' into a three part drama with five scenes in Taiwanese and produced it. He had some doubt that small town folk could comprehend a play of considerable psychological subtlety, but the result was a resounding success. In this play, Youde played the hero Parris; Yu-kun played the father of Parris's lover. They showed perfect timing. The success proved that it was not necessary to pander to the popular taste, rather, that the public was able to enjoy programs of high quality. Youde and his friends were elated and emboldened. Just as they were raring to go, the April 6th student crackdown occurred and both the Taiwan Drama Society and the Student Friendship Association met their demise. Wen-bang, Che-fu, Bin-lang and others were arrested and Yu-kun began his life as a fugitive. Youde had not seen Yu-kun since then.
Luckily, Youde's name was not among the ones given to the
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authority. He had taken care to send the scripts to be reviewed by the student counselor or the police. Even the billboards or advertisements were submitted, by Youde in person, for permission. At the time, some complained that these were acts of cowardice. But in hindsight, the extra caution turned out to be the most important reason that Youde's name was excluded from the list.
When the storm of the April 6th incident was over, all student activities ceased. There was nothing more to write about. Youde briefly touched upon his graduation, his subsequent teaching job, his marriage, trip abroad and return, then ended the statement.
The statement had exceeded fifty pages.
15. A Kind Secret Police
"So, you finally finished! The first time I've seen such a long confession." Fat Su, without paying any attention to the content, gathered up the papers, straightened the stack by tapping the sides on the desk then shoved them into a Manila envelope. He swiped a cigarette from the desk as he hurried out of the room.
Two other men arrived for their shift - a man called Ho and the other 'Big Shan-tung.' Ho said as he locked the door from inside, "Do you want to use the toilet?"
Youde felt no urge at all so he declined politely.
"Come here." Ho sat down on the sofa and gestured Youde to come. Youde stood up and dragged his numbed legs over to the sofa. Big Shan-tung said something to Ho in a tiny voice, unbecoming such a big man.
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Youde picked up a few words: "...documents...meetings...fried dough (yiu tiao)..."
Ho nodded. Big Shan-tung left the room.
Ho sat Youde down opposite himself in a sofa and said, "Relax a bit. You must be tired. You had better rest a little."
Such considerate, gentle words! Youde felt that he could probably ask Ho a few things. When Ho returned from locking the door, Youde asked, "Is it going to be all right?"
"Probably, if your statements are true. You've written quite a bit, haven't you?"
"What I've put down is all true."
"Now, I am also a fellow 'sweet potato,' and I know how you feel. It's really been painful for me to see Taiwanese people being brought into here one by one and handed over to the military court, especially because they are all intelligent young people with a sense of justice. If it were not for getting tangled up with the 'thought problem,' they'd all be very capable people with great futures."
Youde was startled by the unexpected words.
"Particularly, there have been many young men from Putzu. Already, there were Li Shui-ching, Cheng Wen-bang, Huang Lieh-tang, Huang Shih-Iian; all had been executed by the firing squad. Why? Why are there so many from Putzu?"
Youde did not know the answer either. Perhaps the only possible explanation was that it was the town's tradition. Without waiting for an answer, Ho changed the subject. "During the war, you were in the Japanese Air Force, right?"
"Yes. I was in the Makoto Battalion. Makoto belonged to the Air Force, but it served only ground duty."
"I myself was in the Navy assigned to a destroyer. Our chief mission was to escort the supply ships."
Ho told Youde to go ahead and sleep if he felt like it, then started on his own Navy adventures. Ho talked about Hai-nan Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, even about the 'comfort women' and prostitutes he had procured in various ports. Youde was not in the frame of mind to listen to this kind of talk with any interest, nevertheless, he felt a closeness to Ho, who talked on sentimentally. Ho might not be a Buddha in Hell, but a friend nevertheless. Still, Youde was not able to fall asleep. He closed his eyes and listened as Ho continued on.
Catching a break, Youde opened his eyes and said to Ho, "My family is probably worried about me by now."
"Ya. I should think so."
"They probably don't know that I am here."
"I don't think they do."
Youde had reasons to be concerned. There had been many cases where people were taken in for questioning about the February 28th Incident and while their whereabouts were still unknown to their families, turned up several days later as dead bodies floating in the river, or corpses abandoned under a bridge. 'My family, no doubt, is worried about me turning up the same way,' Youde thought.
"Could you possibly let them know? Just that I am here and that I am all right? If you could just do that, to relieve them of the worry ..."
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"I've never done anything like that so I can't make any promises. But, if this is going to go on any longer, I gather they should be told somehow."
"Taking longer?" Youde said.
"Ha, ha. I don't know about that. It's up to you, you know. Some people go home in two or three days, but then some take a few years."
"If what you wrote checks out with our investigation's findings, it would be meaningless to keep you here any longer. Besides, you yourself had just returned from abroad. You must have reports to make as well. But, if your statement is considered to be untrue, then we will have to re-investigate and the matter can get troublesome."
"What I wrote is all true."
"I don't know about the others, but as I am a 'sweet potato' too, I will do my best to help you."
"Thank you." Then Youde added a rather brazen, embarrassing saying - a wisdom learned from the Chinese- "If I get to go home soon, I would never forget your favor for as long as I live."
"Ha, ha." Ho stood up, tapped gently on Youde's shoulder and said, "Rest your mind, even just a little. You can go to sleep if you wish. I'll wake you when somebody else shows up."
Youde thanked his lucky stars for running into such a kind secret police.
16. A Ray of Hope Vanished
Big Shan-tung returned with a paper bag from which he took out soy milk, fried dough and flat bread, all typical Chinese breakfast fare. This must mean that the night was over, although with the heavy drapes still drawn tight, Youde could see no sign of daybreak in the room. Big Shan-tung urged Youde to eat while he himself also took to the food. When he was finished eating, Ho sat Youde back at the desk and went out of the room, leaving only Big Shan-tung.
Big Shan-tung sat down across the desk from Youde and began talking about how cruel the Communists were back in his home village in Shan-tung province, China. Landlords strung up on a tall post were dropped to the ground then pulled up repeatedly until they died their bloody deaths. His stories were all about cruelty. Big Shan-tung urged kindly, "I'm saying this for your own sake; leave the Communist Party as quickly as you can."
It seemed that he had worked his way up from a foot soldier. Youde felt that Big Shan-tung was quite sincere.
Maybe an hour had passed when the door opened and Captain Tao with five other men swaggered into the room. As before, they sat down circling Youde, all looking angry. Captain Tao slammed down Youde's statement, by now stapled into a booklet, and said.
"Let me state the conclusion first. Our unanimous opinion of your statement is that you avoid the serious and touch upon the insignificant. You did not mention one single important thing. Instead, you wrote down a whole lot of nonsense. You just stepped
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on and crushed my good will toward you. We gave you plenty of time to write, not about matters like these. We wanted you to take time to think and write down accurately about true facts."
"What I wrote is all true." Youde said hastily, his lips quivering.
"That is so. But, the problem lies in what you left out." Suddenly, Fat Su stood up and yelled, "This one isn't going to talk unless he knows some pain."
"But I think I did write down everything significant." "A sly one," Wang spit out angrily.
No one would accept Youde's word for it. From the hostile atmosphere in the room, Youde knew that a ray of hope born of the Captain's words, Tell the truth and you'll be let go,' had completely disappeared.
Captain Tao continued, "You totally abused my good will toward you. You have made a bad judgement. Also, you are taking us too lightly. You should know that you cannot hide the facts, even if you wanted to."
Captain Tao vacated his seat. 'There's no relying on his good will now,' Youde realized. Wang moved into Tao's seat as T'ien took away the ashtray from in front of Youde. It seemed that the favored treatment was no more. Leaving only Wang and T'ien, the rest of them quickly withdrew from the room. T'ien sat down next to Wang and placed the investigation forms on the desk.
This was the beginning of the 'fatigue investigation' that lasted for four or five days, a number of which Youde himself was not certain afterwards.
17. Li Shui-ching - A Man From the Same Hometown
Wang asked questions while T'ien recorded the answers. "Since when have you known Li Shui-ching?" "Since he returned to Putzu from the mainland after the Restoration."
Li's return occurred about two weeks after the passionate welcome for the three anti-Japanese heroes. Although Li did not receive the same welcome, he was perhaps the genuine anti-Japanese hero. That is because he had traveled to far-away Chungking and actually participated in the fighting against the Japanese. Huang K'un's threesome also showed up at the train station to greet Li's return. As it turned out, Li was one of the blood brothers. Just his luck, Li successfully evaded the Japanese secret police and escaped via Japan, then Korea and Manchuria to throw his lot with the Nationalist government in Nanking. Finally he went all the way to Chungking when the war situation necessitated. His life was an adventure to fill a book. When the war ended, he came home by way of Shanghai within half a month's time.
At the time, as nobody else in town could speak even passable mandarin Chinese, Li was in great demand to help out in Chinese language classes. Eventually, he became an instructor at the Education Council. It was a precarious system at best in which Li taught the teachers one day, after which the teachers turned around to teach the students the next day. But it worked rather well proving the point that dedication can beat all odds. Not long after, he became a journalist and left for Taipei, much to Putzu's regret.
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Once in Taipei, he was hired as a teacher of Chinese by Chien-kuo Middle School, the top-ranked school in Taiwan.
Flipping through Youde's written statement, Wang inquired,
"Did you live in the same room with Li Shui-ching?"
"Not the same room, just under the same roof."
"That's like the same thing. Why?"
"Because my elder brother was also a teacher at the same school and was given faculty housing, and since Li was a fellow townsman from Putzu, he was assigned to share the housing."
Housing was in extreme short supply then and therefore, it was not uncommon to house two families in the same unit, especially since Li was single and from the same town. All this had been included in the written statement, but Wang now picked a point from here and there while T'ien recorded the answers in the forms.
"For how long did you live together?" "About a year."
"Exactly from when to when?"
"From about six months before the February 28th Incident, that is, August of 1946, to August of the next year."
"When did he recruit you into the Party?"
"No. I was never absorbed into the Party."
"Living together for a whole year as you did! Nobody is going to believe that he did not absorb you into the Party."
"It's the absolute truth that I was not."
"It's odd that you are so emphatic. You see, he joined the Communist Party back when he was on the mainland. He returned to Taiwan with the mission to absorb as many students as he could
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into the Party. He wouldn't have left a person like you alone."
In Youde's case, if he was thought to have joined the Party, because he had also engaged in various activities, he could be found guilty under Article 2.1 of the Law on Sedition - applied to the person who has joined the bandit Party and attempted to overthrow the government by illegal means. A death penalty would have been a certainty.
Youde denied the accusation vehemently.
After uttering some negative comments, Wang began to ask about books.
"He showed you books, didn't he? What kind of books did he show you?"
If one had read banned books, he would be guilty of Article 9 -Received Bandit Propaganda Material - and sent to the thought reform camp to be brainwashed. Or worse. Because it was the accepted practice of the Communists to lure their intended targets with the banned books as the first step in recruitment, the question is loaded, not merely about having or not having shown certain books. But the fact was that Li Shui-ching did not show any banned books to Youde.
Youde was still pondering when Wang said, "How about 'Mao-wen-chi?'"
While Youde was still turning over in his head 'Mao-wen-chi', the unfamiliar mandarin pronounced name of Mao's collected works, T'ien already efficiently entered it in the investigation form. As soon as he realized what 'Mao-wen-chi' meant Youde hurriedly denied it, but T'ien was not willing to erase the book title from the investigation form easily.  In chorus, the two accused Youde of
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lying and argued that a high school teacher must have owned books other than school textbooks. Tired of the continuous badgering, Youde offered some book titles of no significance: 'History of Eastern Chou,' a fiction of Maupassant, a translation of poetry by Tagore. Several times, Wang stood up and pounded on the desk, narrowed his eyes and bellowed, "Don't take us for fools!"
Youde was desperate, but luckily not yet so confused that he would admit to banned books that he had not seen.
Next, Wang moved onto what Youde had seen in Li Shui-ching's room, everything he had seen in a year's time. Then the questions turned to their conversations. Youde was asked to elaborate them with examples. Wang asked, "What kind of bad-mouthing of the government did you do?"
At the time, there was not a single Taiwanese who did not criticize the government. At every gathering people always ended up criticizing the government.
Youde could not blatantly answer 'We did not criticize the government at all,' as it would be too far fetched to be credible, like admitting to be fools. On the other hand, the most frequent and widespread criticism was that the government had used the secret police and arrested many people arbitrarily - hardly a suitable answer under the circumstances.
At his wit's end, Youde, searching through memory, cited some examples of criticisms and attributed them to Li ShuLching:
Example I : Not long after the Restoration, Assemblyman Wang T'ien-ting questioned the government about the large quantity of surplus goods left over from the war: "Where did the sugar, rice and camphor in the warehouse disappear to?" It was common
knowledge that the goods had been sent to the mainland and the profit pocketed by private individuals, but the official answered shamelessly, "The goods were all stolen." "Then, what happened to the 70 kilos of opium in the custody of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau?" "Termites got it all," the Bureau chief answered with a straight face. Whereupon the irate Assemblyman Wang pressed for the official's dismissal. The incident resulted instead in the promotion of the officials by the government. Furthermore, during the February 28th Incident, the government got its revenge and killed Assemblyman Wang.
Example II: Prosecutor Wang Yu-lin of Hsin-chu indicted the mayor of Hsin-chu with solid evidence of corruption. When Prosecutor Wang accompanied by the police arrived at the mayor's office for the mayor's arrest, they found the police chief waiting. The police chief, who was in league with the mayor, ordered the accompanying policemen to surround Prosecutor Wang. He then snatched away the arrest warrant and chased the prosecutor out of the building. When the angry prosecutor returned to the courthouse and reported what had happened to his superior, he was reprimanded instead. Thus Prosecutor Wang resigned in anger and took up teaching in a high school in Taipei. Prosecutor Wang too was murdered during the February 28th Incident, a revenge killing exacted by the mayor. Wang's body was thrown into the Tamsui River. This was the story of three corrupt government officials from the mainland killing a Taiwanese 'sweet potato,' one with an extraordinary concern for justice.
Example III: A military man's wife (all military men were mainlanders at the time) entered the hospital to give birth but
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unfortunately died at the operating table. The military man demanded a huge sum of compensation, a sum that was beyond the hospital's means. Taiwan had never seen this kind of extortion before. Eventually, the case was taken to the court with Judge Wu Chi-lin presiding. Judge Wu investigated the case and found the doctor not culpable. Alas, the military man took his private revenge. Judge Wu's body was found in a ditch. When Youde was finished, Wang said glumly, "So you have some discontent toward the government. From what you say, I can see that some is justified, although the facts are not so simple. You only see things from Taiwan's point of view, while you should be viewing things from the standpoint of all of China. What's wrong with sending Taiwan's goods to the mainland? Wasn't it to help save China? I guess that it's understandable, you not thinking of China, given the fact that Taiwanese had been enslaved by the Japanese for a long period of time. But it is not right to bad mouth the government at will."
"So, Li Shui-ching, knowing your unhappiness with the government, lent you books to read, then around June or July urged you to join the Party. Right?"
Youde was taken aback. In fact, in early July, Li Shui-ching had casually mentioned something akin to recruiting. He did not clearly refer to the Communist Party, but he mentioned that there was a study group of patriotic youth, that they studied not only politics but also literature and theater. He asked Youde if he would be interested to join the group.
At the time Youde had his hands full with the Taiwan Drama
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Society so he gave an ambiguous reply and the matter was never raised again. Then, the following month, namely August, Li Shui-ching disappeared from the faculty housing without a goodbye and never returned.
Youde learned of Li Shui-ching's execution in the newspaper on November 30th of 1950. Eleven were executed that day with Li Shui-ching heading the list. Among the eleven were Cheng Wen-bang and Huang Shih-lian. According to Wen-bang's mother who went to retrieve her son's body, Shui-ching was the only one who was shot through the head and died a gruesome death. It was said that Shui-ching had kept up his harangue of the government up to the end. Neither of Shui-ching's parents was living so there were no kin to retrieve his body. Wen-bang's mother took it upon herself to retreive the body and sent it to the mortuary to have it made up. "An impossible job," the mortician took a look and declined. So Shui-ching was thrust into the crematory kiln still in his blood soaked prison garb - a sad ending of this free spirit.
Obviously, Shui-ching did not mention anything about Youde. If he had, even in the slightest, Youde would have been snatched at the same time and the American trip three years later was totally unthinkable.
Wang persisted on tracing Youde's relationship with Shui-ching. Over and over, Youde denied and denied. It was a contest of wills with no ending in sight, requiring immense patience.
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