Statesman: Old Soldiers Never Die (family stories from the POV of Jaw Shaw-kong’s dad)
“I arrived in Taiwan with naught but a plastic basin to my name!” is the rallying cry of the Jaw family. It is a reference to losing almost all earthly possessions and leaving familiar faces behind. It is the entrepreneurial spirit of a refugee.
「蓮貞(趙少康之母)後來常說：我是只帶著一個洗臉盆來到台灣的。」
This is part two of a three-part feature on Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), the KMT’s vice presidential candidate in the 2024 Taiwan elections whose political career and media prominence were built upon a pro-China platform. His father, Jaw Yan-min (趙彥民), was a career military officer-turned-educator who enlisted with the Chinese Nationalists at the age of 16, graduated from Whampoa Military Academy, survived two capture attempts by the Chinese Communists, yet spent 18 years unable to rise beyond the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel because he landed on a government blacklist. His tale was not uncommon among the Waishengren (外省人), or “of families that fled to Taiwan during the 1949 Nationalist retreat from China.”
This feature is based on the autobiography from Jaw’s father, “Old Soldiers Never Die (老兵不死),” available on the website of Jaw’s Taipei-based Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC, 中廣): https://www.bcc.com.tw/eBook/biography/
By 1949, the central government of Nationalist China had retreated to Taipei, Taiwan while its military command withdrew from Qingdao city, Shandong province to Hainan Island to defend its final maritime frontier from the Chinese Communists (固守海疆).
According to the senior Jaw, Hainan Island was unique for its fecund ability to grow coconut trees. In classic Chinese lore, Hainan was considered a savage borderland, for it was where those who fell out of favor with the imperial palace — including poet Su Shi (Su Dongpo, 蘇東坡) — were once banished to. Su thought it was rather a lush isle of paradise than punishment, and so did the senior Jaw.
One March day in 1949, Jaw Shaw-kong’s dad assists a non-routine mission to deliver medical and military supplies to another outpost at the port city of Haikou; he is joined by three high-ranking officers and all four squeeze into the front of a large truck loaded with 20 armed soldiers and a heavy machine gun at the back.
All four men joke about being lean, as the front passenger row is meant to seat three. One offers his cigarette pack, and all lean back to take a drag. Then bullets fly. Ambushed by pro-independence Hainanese fighters who aligned with the Chinese Communists then (like Feng Baiju 馮白駒), the senior Jaw who sat closest to the passenger-side door immediately got off but was captured and had his head pressed to the ground by foot. The raid took no more than ten-some minutes before the Hainanese forces began marching the senior Jaw away.
Because his hands were not restrained, the experienced officer managed to identify an opportunity for escape and dashed off into a wild coconut forest, running like a madman for his life and eventually scaling a massive coconut tree to hide from his captors. There he remained in the dark, bleeding from scratches and waving coconut leaves in a feeble attempt to fend off swarms of jungle mosquitoes. He was afraid the slapping sounds of killing skeeters would betray his location.
From being ambushed by Hainanese “bandits” (土共) to being rescued by his own forces, the whole ordeal lasted about six hours. Among the friendly faces of his rescuers was a communications specialist (傳令兵) that the senior Jaw had converted from a “professional conscript” — one who took payment in exchange for impersonation as a “purchasable strongman” — to a loyal aide.
In his memoir, the senior Jaw saw systemic corruption and widespread complacency within the Chinese Nationalist military system as the crowning reasons for losing the war over China. Prior to the Hainan incident, for example, his base had sent troops to sweep the convoy’s planned route, with specific instructions to screen for guerrilla tactics; they even reported back that they did their job. The ambush left one high-ranking officer dead and two months’ worth of medicine and firepower raided, and the senior Jaw came to realize he was alive by a combination of sheer luck and divine grace.
Had he not offered to take the most-cramped seat on the passenger side in deference to their ranks, the senior Jaw might have been in the direct line of fire. Had he not grew up with a passion for climbing trees as a young child in Hebei province — specifically tacamahaca (白楊樹), a balsam poplar native to both North America and Asia and a popular schoolyard and ornamental street tree in Taiwan — he would have been re-captured and possibly executed, at the age of 28, on Hainan Island.
‘The Communists did not win China; the Chinese Nationalists lost to themselves’
「我始終認為，國民黨的江山是自己輸掉的，不是被共產黨打敗的！」
The overarching reasons for complacency to have infected the Nationalist war machine stemmed from the late Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣中正) policies and biases, wrote the senior Jaw:
One, Chiang favored “pureblooded” soldiers (正規軍) who were trained through the elite Nationalist system and accredited by his Ministry of National Defense because they were loyal to him. Commoners who were forcibly conscripted for the eight-year war against Japan were considered “off-brand” soldiers (雜牌軍) lacking discipline and training. US-supplied military equipment and aid were prescribed to the purebloods only. The senior Jaw was wearing standard-issued, plant-woven sandals (草鞋) on the night of the 1938 Changsha fire.
Two, most of these “off-brand” soldiers were let go upon achieving victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War, leaving a majority of 16 million veterans to fend for themselves. The severance money was so minimal that many could not even afford to pay the fares for traveling back to their home province. Having no bankable skills from dedicating their youths to the war effort, many ended up begging on the streets and became particularly susceptible to the Communists’ recruitment.
Three, Chiang’s nemesis Mao Zedong (毛澤東) took advantage of the situation by promoting a reputation for leniency, such as releasing prisoners of war before a major battle. Word quickly spread that captives not only got to keep their lives, they were fed and paid, too, if they promised to switch allegiance. The “Mao Wants You (Even If the Generalissimo Rejected You)” campaign (老蔣不要，老毛要！) contrasted with Chiang’s practice of interrogating and re-educating his own loyal soldiers who managed to escape from Communist captivity.
Four, hell hath no fury like a soldier scorned. Ex-Nationalist troops not only fought with a personal vengeance against their old comrades, they shared their combat expertise with the Communist camp. Mao now had veterans knowledgeable in operating heavy artillery, tanks, and fighter jets.
Five, persecution of “off-brand” officers continued even after the Generalissimo retreated to Taiwan. The senior Jaw was among those who got their rank automatically demoted because they weren’t accredited by the defense ministry. He also spent a total of 18 years as a Lieutenant Colonel (中校) because he landed on the government’s blacklist — the crime? He once worked at a military unit led by General Sun Li-jen (孫立人), who was viewed as a threat to the Chiang family’s hold on power. Sun was placed under house arrest for over three decades, and his associates, both close and fleeting ones, were carefully monitored.
Having served the Nationalist cause since 16, the senior Jaw retired from his military career at the age of 46. After 30 years of service, he was rewarded with a one-time pension payout of NT$92,000.
The disillusioned father forbad his three sons from joining the military, going as far as ripping up Jaw Shaw-kong’s admission letter from the National Defense Medical Center (國防醫學院). His firstborn, Jaw the political commentator, recalled a strict and militant upbringing in which they often clashed. One week before the junior high examinations and faced with the threat of physical discipline, Jaw ran away for a day, attempted to spend the night at Tainan Train Station before being driven away by police, and narrowly avoided being molested at Tainan Park. The senior Jaw, who never came looking for his runaway son, greeted Jaw’s return with a simple statement: “Only take the reins when you’re ready.”
「有本事你就在外闖。」
Among the personal stories detailed in his autobiography, the senior Jaw included these moments about his first son Shaw-kong: once, he had to rely on the junior Jaw as a Taiwanese-to-Mandarin translator when trying to broker a land-selling deal in Taichung; before this though, the firstborn was almost lost to cellulitis (蜂窩性組織炎). Still a young boy, his kid suffered from a facial wart that became deadly infected. For days, Shaw-kong was dehydrated and could not hold food. Thwarted by the pricing of a reputable military hospital ran by the Nationalist air force (the elder Jaw was from the army, hence not eligible for a preferential rate there) in Tainan, the father found salvation at a Catholic hospital that offered a financial discount upon saving his son’s life: “I will believe in God if He lets you live.”
「你若是病好了，我就信主！」
Upon retiring from the army, Jaw’s father did a stint as a land broker but soon set his mind on “shedding his armor for a teacher’s pen (棄戎從筆)” — he spent 3 years taking 9 exams to become a nationally certified junior high teacher. It was in part to honor his late father’s wish, who had once saved up enough money with the intent to send his son, the senior Jaw, to Japan for higher education. The Hebei-born and well-educated retired Lieutenant Colonel had to learn Bopomofo, a transliteration system devised by the Nationalist government, to pass the examinations. He went on to do 16 excellent years as an educator and eventually joined the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, citing two incidents:
First, when his firstborn was deadly ill, he avowed to the heavens that he would renounce his atheism if Shaw-kong kept his life. Second, he ascribed divine intervention for his determination to quit smoking. The Nationalist military paid their soldiers partially in cigarettes, and nicotine addiction dictated most of the senior Jaw’s life for some-sixty years.
In the letters appended to their dad’s memoir by two sons and one daughter, Shaw-kong wrote of the senior Jaw’s death:
“He was a stubborn and determined man, temperamental yet fast to act; even his death was without fuss. He lifted his blanket up, shook it properly, turned around, and then died.”
「他個性極強，決不拖泥帶水，脾氣很急，連死都很乾脆，他把身上的被子掀了起來，抖了一下，翻了一個身，就過去了。」
“In his last days, I saw him gasping for air on the hospital bed, and knew that he had not long to live. I caressed his cheek thinking, dad will put up a fight, even though passing away is the easier thing to do. Until this day, I am plagued by regrets — why did I not dig up and share my prized 30-year Macallan whiskey with him, to enjoy a few drinks together and visit him every day at the hospital. I really didn’t think it would be over so quick.”
「最後幾天，我看著他在病床上辛苦的喘息，我撫摸著他的臉，難過的知道，應該不久了，但總以為還可再撐一段時間，雖然明白早去可以少受很多苦，還是十分不捨，還是後悔為什麼我沒找出把珍藏的麥卡倫三十年威士忌陪他喝幾杯，為什麼沒有每天到醫院看看他，我真的沒想到這麼快。」
The senior Jaw’s memoir is named after the 1951 farewell speech delivered by US General Douglas MacArthur (there’s a bridge in Taipei’s Neihu district named after him, too) in front of Congress: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”
“I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that ‘old soldiers never die; they just fade away.’
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”
RIP Jaw Yan-min (趙彥民), 1922–2011.
Next up: Policies
