Apart from the structural damage to the campus, there was great social turmoil throughout Taiwan with virtually every industry hurting and inflation running rampant. As the population suffered, a dark cloud of discontent gathered. Finally, the February 28 Incident of 1947 erupted when the authorities enforced monopolistic control over the sale of cigarettes.
除了校園殘破不堪，社會狀況更是百業蕭條、物價飛漲，人民生活的痛苦日亟，逐漸釀成一股不滿的暗潮，至一九四七年二月，終於爆發了因查緝私菸引發官民衝突的二二八事件。