“I’ll be right back”—these were the last words he spoke to his wife.
“Who gave you the weapons? Tell us—who was it?” “Who was it? Give me a name!” These were the questions hurled at him by Chinese military police during brutal torture—questions he took to his grave, refusing to betray others.
“There is no need to bind me, and no need to blindfold me.”
“I carry the blood of the Yamato within me. If a guilty party must be named, let me bear the guilt alone.”
“Long live the Taiwanese people.”
These were his final words before facing the firing squad.
Thng Tek-chiong (Tang Te-chang, Sakai Tokusho, January 6, 1907 – March 13, 1947) was born to a Japanese father and a mother from Nanhua, Tainan. He served as a police officer under the Japanese colonial government and was known for standing up for the rights of Taiwanese citizens. At the age of 35 (in 1942), he passed the Japanese Higher Civil Service Examination in the judicial category and became a licensed attorney. He began practicing law in Tainan in September 1943.
During the February 28 Incident, Thng Tek-chiong intervened in his capacities as a Tainan City Councilor and Chairperson of the Committee for the Protection of People’s Liberties under the Tainan Bar Association. He was appointed Head of Security for the Tainan Branch of the February 28 Incident Settlement Committee. Working with students from Tainan Technical College (now National Cheng Kung University), he successfully coordinated the retrieval and return of firearms to the ruling authorities.
Even under excruciating torture, Attorney Thng Tek-chiong refused to divulge the names of the students who had surrendered their weapons. With his life, he demonstrated to future generations the essence of legal ethics—the duty of confidentiality—and the kind of secrets a lawyer must be willing to carry to the grave. Sadly, the Chinese military police, operating under a pre-modern and regressive regime, could not comprehend the ethical standards of a modern rule-of-law state, nor the professional integrity of legal practitioners.
In honor of Attorney Thng Tek-chiong’s brief but remarkable four-year legal career—during which he exemplified justice, courage, and unwavering moral resolve in protecting Taiwanese youth—ToMoDaChi Attorneys At Law has named its staff dining hall “Tek-chiong Hall.”
