Military History | 國民革命忠烈祠 — Seven Months Before the Announcement

The three officers killed at 翠谷 on 23 August 1958 were not publicly named as dead for seven months. 聯合報, working from its own archive, dates the government's first announcement that the 金防部's deputy commanders had been lost to 21 March 1959. The memorial followed a week after that.

Vice-President 陳誠 presided over it on 28 March. Twenty-five figures attended as 陪祭, 何應欽, 俞大維 and 白崇禧 among them, with over a thousand officials and public representatives present by the same account. 蔣中正 came at midday to the 國際學舍 and was photographed with each of the three families. The tablets entered the 國民革命忠烈祠 at 大直 that day.

The promotions had their own timetable. 趙家驤 and 吉星文 were raised posthumously to 陸軍二級上將 and 章傑, a 空軍少將 when he died, to 空軍中將. zh.wikipedia places all three at the March ceremony; 澎湖's county knowledge platform dates the presidential approval to 28 October 1958, following a request from chief of staff 王叔銘 earlier that month. If the October dating holds, the state recognised the three of them five months before it told anyone they were dead.

The bodies had gone elsewhere, earlier and with less ceremony. 吉星文 was buried on 27 August 1958 at the 澎湖縣軍人忠靈祠, and moved again in the 1980s to the 國軍示範公墓 in what is now New Taipei; sources give 1984 and 1986.

The shrine that took the tablets in 1959 is itself gone. It was the 臺灣省忠烈祠, which had been the 臺灣護國神社 of the Japanese colonial administration until its conversion to Republic of China use in 1946. 蔣中正 judged it too plain for the purpose and had 何應欽 direct a replacement modelled on the 太和殿 of the Forbidden City. That building opened on 25 March 1969 and is what stands on 北安路 today, holding more than 400,000 names from the founding of the republic through 古寧頭, 一江山, 八二三 and 六一九砲戰. The honour guard changes on the hour, which has made it one of the city's more visited stops for foreign travellers.

📸 Cover: the 1969 main hall at 大直, the replacement for the building that received the tablets. Photo by Brandon Wang, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.