The Transitional Justice Commission yesterday said it has researched military prisons that the Ministry of National Defense used during the White Terror era.
The commission studied the history of seven facilities over the past six months and has begun making plans to establish memorials at each, commission spokeswoman Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said.
The research would provide a template for the commission’s future dealings regarding “sites of injustice,” she said.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The former Counterintelligence Bureau’s Taoyuan Correction and Training Facility, a “black site” located in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹), has survived intact, the commission said.
Before being commandeered by the bureau to be used as a secret prison, the traditional Minnan (閩南) compound was the ancestral home of former Taoyuan County commissioner Hsu Chung-te (徐崇德), it said.
Hsu’s family was allowed to live in half of the compound, while prisoners were kept in the other half, the commission said.
The bureau used the prison for alleged traitors from its own ranks and senior military officers who had incurred Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) wrath, such as Lee Hung (李鴻), a decorated commander who Chiang expelled from the army for befriending his rival, general Sun Li-jen (孫立人), it said.
The prison apparently remained in use until 1958, when the bureau relocated the program to the so-called “Wolung Mansion” (臥龍山莊) in the city’s Longtan District (龍潭), it said.
The Lujhu property is owned by a private citizen and the remains of sentry posts can still be seen, while the Wolung Mansion was demolished to build the Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, it said.
The euphemistically named “Fongshan Guesthouse” (鳳山招待所) in Kaoshiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山) is one of three intact prison facilities used in the city during the White Terror era, it said.
The facility was a detention and interrogation center for sailors and other political prisoners in the navy’s custody, the commission said.
Built by Japan as a wireless communication hub, the facility is now a national historical heritage site, it said.
Kaohsiung’s two other military prisons can be found at Shoushan Military Base (壽山營區), and were operated by the Taiwan Garrison Command and the Southern Region Reserve Command, the commission said.
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