Control Yuan members yesterday urged the Council of Cultural Affairs to designate four ammunition storage depots located near an army base camp in Penghu County’s Siyu (西嶼) as heritage sites, saying that the well-preserved remains could become a popular tourist attraction.
Three of the ammunition storage depots that were established in caves in 1907, named “copper wall, iron bastion” (銅牆鐵壁彈藥庫), were the only sites in the country where smokeless ammunition was kept, Control Yuan member Lee Ping-nan (李炳南) said.
Widely spread rumors that the caves were gas chambers, similar to those used by Nazi Germany, or places where the Japanese army produced biochemical weapons during World War II, prompted Lee and two other Control Yuan members to investigate the history of the caves.
Lee told a press conference that following their investigation, army biotechnology weapons experts ruled out the possibility that the facilities were gas chambers.
Military history experts said the caves were ammunition storage depots that utilized a sophisticated design, which can also be found in Japan, Lee said.
“The storage room inside the cave was a double-layer structure, with copper embedded in the inner layer of the walls and the ceiling to prevent a lightening strike that could have lead to an explosion of the ammunition,” Lee said.
The Penghu County Government has designated the caves as historical sites, but the three Control Yuan members yesterday suggested that, for better preservation, their status should be elevated to the national level.
The depots had been under the management of the Ministry of National Defense. Lee said the ministry has agreed to hand over ownership to the Penghu County Government.
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