本文以新現實主義木刻家黃榮燦（1916-1952）的作品〈恐怖的檢查〉（1947）為例，回顧二二八事件，以及數年後白色恐怖時期的殘暴不法經驗。〈恐怖的檢查〉，隱藏著由可見的轉向不可見的權力作用。這個不可見的權力作用，既宰制國家機器，又滲透法律。它能夠決定誰是敵人，誰是「亂黨叛徒」，誰又是善良百姓。要生，還是要死，要抓，還是要放，都在它的一念之間。在白色恐怖時期，這個不可見的權力作用，透過黨國一體、戒嚴法制、軍法審判、秘密偵訊、嚴刑逼供、軍警特情蒐、線民舉報、連坐保證等措置，滲透至社會每一個角落，構成嚴密監視的規訓網絡。
黃榮燦堅持的新現實主義木刻理想，還有他推廣的馬思聰音樂、麥浪歌詠隊歌舞詞曲，反而都成為戒嚴軍事法庭認定為「意圖以非法之方法，顛覆政府，而著手實行」的叛亂鐵證。黃榮燦年僅 36歲，孓然一身殞命於華麗島臺灣，孤寂葬身於六張犁荒煙蔓草裡。然而，他的作品〈恐怖的檢查〉，卻成為傳世藝術見證，讓後代得以真誠反省那個年代的殘暴、哀戚與荒謬。"

This article exemplifies the “Terrible Inspection” (1947), a work of Neorealistic woodcut painter Yung-tsam Huang (1916-1952), to illustrate the injustice experiences, during the 228 Incident and the White Terror in Taiwan. The “Terrible Inspection” implies the Power transforming from visible to invisible. It was the invisible power that simultaneously conducted the state apparatus, penetrated the legal system, distinguished the antagonistic and the traitorous from the docile ones, decided who to live, who to die, and whom to be arrested, whom to be released. Through managing the state-party, martial laws, court-martials, secret investigations and interrogations, confession extortions, information collections by secret polices or militants, collective punishments, the invisible power permeated every corner in the society and constructed a rigorously surveying network of discipline.
The Neorealistic woodcut ideals that Huang insisted, and musical works of Sicon Ma and the Barley Wave Ensemble that Huang promoted, were all firmly viewed as the evidences of the criminal act that “intent to overthrow the government in illegal ways”. Sadly, Huang perished solitarily at the age of 36 in the beautiful island Formosa, and buried alone in the weedy graveyard located in Liuzhangli, Taipei. Nevertheless, “Terrible Inspection”, his aesthetic work passing through generations, still testifying, and always reminding the descendants to carefully review the cruelty, the misery, and the absurdity of the past.