A major advisor to the government investigation and reconciliation initiatives of the 228 Incident
Education
Tokyo Imperial Univ. — 1943 — M.D.
Univ. of Tokyo — 1953 — Ph.D.
Employment
National Taiwan Univ. Hospital — Chair of Dept. of Psychiatry — (1947-1950) — National Taiwan Univ. Hospital — Director of Pediatric Mental Health — (1957-1964) — World Health Organization — Director of Mental Health — (1964-1969) — Univ. of British Columbia — Professor — (1973-1985)
Family
Wife: Mei-Chen Lin(林李美貞) — daughter-in-law of 林茂生 (disappeared in the 228 Incident); reported to have died peacefully in Vancouver at age 99, in a 228-tribute article published 2024-02-25 (77年前，長榮中學最傷心的事件…林茂生在228失蹤犧牲 (台灣頭條)). Exact death date not in source; age as reported.
Daughter: Lillian Lin Miao, Elizabeth Lin, Joy Lin Salzberg
Son: Siong-Chi Lin, David Lin
Role in the Community
Co-initiator (with 黃彰輝, 黃武東, 宋泉盛) of the overseas 台灣人民自決運動 / Formosans for Self-Determination, launched in response to the Presbyterian Church’s 1971 〈對國是的聲明與建議〉; the movement’s史料 were later edited by 宋泉盛 as 《出頭天：台灣人民自決運動史料》(人光出版社, 1988) (2019, 2020).
HOLD: conflict on launch date/framing — 何義麟 (our-journeys-350) says a 1972-03-19 joint-initiator letter; 何義麟 (our-journeys-357) says a 1972-12-25 Washington launch; 台灣協志會大事記 (ourjourneys37) says 1973-03-20. Not auto-merged.
1973-04-21 — Invited to speak on 「臺灣人民自決運動」 at the 台灣協志會 (Bay Area) preparatory picnic at which the charter was adopted; the 協志會 record affirms support for the 自決運動 and cooperation with 自決會 ( 紀哲嘉, 357. 舊金山灣區臺灣人的社團活動與家國意識之形成).
Paper presenter at a 台灣協志會 學術討論會 (at Syntek Hall Center, Palo Alto; convened by 陳芳明) alongside 彭明敏, 林宗光, 張旭成, 蕭欽義, 簡烟仁, 謝善元, 林衡哲, 陳芳明, 張富美 (37. 台灣協志會成立與大事記).
Addressed the founding assembly of the 北美洲台灣人醫師協會 (1983–1990 era), citing his experience chairing the American Psychiatric Association’s 「外國精神科醫師小組」 to argue for a national Taiwanese-American physicians’ association as a shield against discrimination, and urged 「上醫醫國」 — active participation in US medical societies and internationalising the Taiwan question ( 周烒明).
Listed as a supporter of the 自決運動 in the 全美台灣同鄉會 record: 支持1973年3月20日黃彰輝、黃武東、林宗義與宋泉盛發起的台灣人民自決運動 ( 吳木盛).
Also recorded in that association’s record as having participated in the preparations for the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations (世台會/WFTA) during 吳木盛’s presidency ( 吳木盛).
WHO mental-health veteran in the Taiwan-WHO campaign: 林榮松’s NATMA record of the 1997–2007 台灣叩關WHO effort lists him (with 謝獻臣, 許子秋) among the Taiwanese physicians who had served as WHO consultants, whose Geneva-network contacts became the backbone of the 台灣醫界宣達團 from 1997 ( 2015-02).
228 memory link through family: the 2024 tribute record names 林宗義’s wife 林李美貞 as 林茂生’s daughter-in-law — i.e. 林宗義 is 林茂生’s son, whose disappearance in the 228 Incident is the family’s defining historical wound; she died at 99 in Vancouver in Feb 2024 (2024). This corroborates the page’s existing claim that he was a major advisor to the 228 investigation and reconciliation initiatives.
Televised profile: the 【台灣演義】 documentary 「台灣精神科先驅 林宗義」 (2018-09-09) is held in-corpus at 122. Prof. Tsung-yi Lin【台灣演義】台灣精神科先驅 林宗義; taiwanjustice.net’s 林宗義 tag page mirrors the same broadcast listing (2024).
Corpus re-grep 2026-10-11: hit set unchanged (our-journeys-350, our-journeys-357, ourjourneys37, ourjourneys74, ourjourneys74-eng, ourjourneys76, ourjourneys76-eng, whos-who-1974-tsung-yi-lin, 50013, ourjourneys100); new material this pass is the taiwanjustice.net 228 tribute line (family/228 link above) and the 台灣演義 tag mirror. No other new material; 1972 launch-date HOLD stands.
From the record
2017-12-03: profile recorded in the TAH encyclopedia as 「1974. Prof. Tsung-Yi Lin 林宗義教授」 (TAH 1974 Who’s Who) — the encyclopedia entry underlying this page’s Identity Snapshot.
2024-02-25: taiwanjustice.net’s 228-tribute record 「77年前，長榮中學最傷心的事件…林茂生在228失蹤犧牲[影]」 reports that 林茂生教授的媳婦、林宗義教授的夫人林李美貞 died peacefully in Vancouver at age 99, 77 years after the 228 Incident (2024) — the same article held at its 2025 archive mirror.
2025-06-25: 美洲台灣日報 (Taiwan Daily) 即時新聞 post 85052 「228事件『被消失近80年』台灣首位留美博士林茂生家屬聲請死亡宣告」 (自由時報 0625 wire) records 林宗義 as 「已故的二伯父林宗義（台灣腦神經精神醫學先鋒）」 — the article’s own identification of him as 林茂生’s son (二伯父 from 林承志’s viewpoint) and as the pioneer of Taiwanese brain/neuro-psychiatry — and states that after the 黑名單 was lifted following the 1988 解嚴, 林宗義 (已故) returned to Taiwan and served as 召集人 of the 二二八平反活動 (sourced; body verbatim at knowledge/web-archives/taiwandaily-net-85052-85052.md, ingest logged at 美洲台灣日報 taiwandaily.net ingest hub).
2025-06-25: 自由時報 reports that 林茂生’s grandson 林承志 and other family members formally filed a missing-person report and petitioned for a declaration of death (死亡宣告) for 林茂生, “disappeared” for nearly 80 years since the 228 Incident — the family’s effort to close a three-generation wound; the article recounts 林茂生 as first Taiwanese Columbia University PhD, founder of 《民報》, abducted by plainclothes agents during 228, the family’s 黑名單 years, and that after the blacklist was lifted 林宗義 (已故) returned to Taiwan and became convener of the 228 redress movement (美洲台灣日報, reported; wire reprint of 自由時報 0625 — family-relationship facts corroborated by the vault’s existing 林宗義 is 林茂生’s son record above).