Tang De-Jhang

Tang De-Jhang (Chinese: 湯德章; January 6, 1907 – March 13, 1947) was a Taiwanese lawyer born in Tainan during Japanese rule. He was killed in the February 28 Incident.

Life

Tang grew up poor, and received some financial help from a traditional Chinese physician named Yang. He graduated from Tapani Elementary School, but dropped out of Tainan Normal School (now the National University of Tainan) due to his father's death, and worked on his family's farm, and then later at a sugar refinery. At that time, he enhanced his knowledge and fighting skills by learning Chinese language, Four Books and Five Classics, Chinese martial arts and Japanese martial arts. In 1927, he passed the formal civil service examination and became a Tainan Prefecture Patrol deployed to Tōseki District (東石郡). He got married a year later.

February 28 Incident

Tang De-jhang was elected mayoral candidate by all Tainan senators, leaders of villages citizen organizations, and student representatives in 1947, when the February 28 Incident occurred.

After troops of the 21st Division descended on Tainan, about twenty gendarmes broke into Tang's house on March 11, 1947, to arrest him for the crime of rebellion. During his arrest, Tang burned a list containing the names of people on the Settlement Committee, an action regarded to have saved their lives. The next day, Tang was hung upside down, tortured and paraded. On March 13, Tang was shot at Taishō Park (大正公園, now Tang De-jhang Memorial Park).