Huang Chin-tao

Huang Chin-tao (; 28 September 1926 – 8 January 2019) was a Taiwanese World War II veteran who served in the Imperial Japanese Navy and resistance fighter affiliated with the 27 Brigade.

Biography He was born to a family of farmers in Taichung as Huang Tsuen-tao . He traveled to Japan in 1941, seeking admission to medical school. Instead, the next year, aged 16, Huang enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy to prove that Taiwanese could be just as capable as Japanese despite discrimination. He was assigned to the transportation division. During Huang's first military action, an unsuccessful sea rescue, his lifeboat capsized. He was later stationed on Hainan. At the end of the Second Sino–Japanese War, Japanese prisoners of war were permitted to return home, but Taiwanese soldiers and their families were placed in Kuomintang-run camps on Hainan. Huang soon escaped and traveled to Haikou, where he ran a small business. Huang escaped the island entirely in May 1946. After a month of sailing the Taiwan Strait, Huang and a group of Taiwanese landed in Chiayi. He settled in Taichung.

The 228 Incident broke out on 28 February 1947. By the next day, the violence had reached Taichung. Huang witnessed Kuomintang forces killing civilians in front of the Taichung Hotel. Huang subsequently joined Hsieh Hsueh-hung's Independent Security Brigade. He was the only group member with military experience. The Independent Security Brigade merged with others and was renamed the 27 Brigade on 6 March 1947. Hsieh remained leader of the reconstituted force, while Huang was responsible for its security unit. Kuomintang forces reached Puli on 13 March. The 27 Brigade sent out a small force to raid the KMT position at Sun Moon Lake, and, led by Huang, formally engaged the Kuomintang on 16 March in the . Hsieh elected to end the resistance upon learning that the brigade's headquarters at the Puli had fallen.

In 2024, Anna Beth Keim published a biography of Huang, Heaven Does Not Block All Roads. Keim had become interested in Huang’s life after reading a blog post about him, and she met him in 2016.