Green Island, once called "Fire Island" during Japanese colonial rule, is transforming itself from being the martial-law era reform center for political dissidents to a democratic-era memorial park dedicated to human rights.
Although Tso Chin-jun (曹欽榮) is not a native of Green Island, he has dedicated himself to the establishment of a human rights memorial park here in the place where political prisoners were once incarcerated.
"I have a dream. I'd like to see this place shrug off its notorious past and transform itself into a living lesson for the promotion of human rights," Tsao said outside the Oasis Villa on Green Island.
Tsao is the head of the Green Island Human Rights Memorial Park project which is authorized by the government to design the 25-hectare area.
To convert the 30-year-old prison into part of a human rights memorial park, the government has planned to allocated NT$52 million to turn the Oasis Villa into a museum.
It is still unclear, however, what the government plans to do with the rest of the area.
The Oasis Villa has been empty since 1987, when martial law was lifted, and is scheduled to open to the public on Dec. 10 to coincide with International Human Rights Day.
At the height of its activity during the 1960s and 1970s, the camp once housed some 2,000 political prisoners at a time.
"I remember back in the 1950s, when the mass transportation system was not that great, political prisoners had to walk all the way from the quay to get here," said Tsao, wiping his sweat under the scorching sun.
According to Tsao, the planned area has gone through three major stages. Between 1951 and 1965, the Freshman Disciplinary Camp, which was the first jail building ever constructed on the compound, housed only political prisoners and those convicted of violent crimes who were sentenced to 15 years or more.
After the Taiyuan Prison was built in the vicinity in 1962, most of the political prisoners and convicts of violent crimes were relocated there. The Taiyuan Prison was eventually abandoned when the Oasis Villa was constructed in 1972 after a failed riot broke out at the Taiyuan Prison in 1970.
The compound bears witnesses to part of the modern history of Taiwan. "During the 1950s and 1960s, this place was managed like a military camp," Tsao said.
"In addition to taking the brain-washing courses in order to become politically correct, convicts had to engage in manual labor such as cutting grass, chopping wood and growing vegetables," he said.
Some of the prisoners did find time to make musical instruments such as violins from the dismantled hulls of sunken boats and hard wood salvaged from collapsed buildings.
"As far as I know, three violins still exist today, including the one made by Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟) and kept by his son, Hu Nai-yuan (胡乃元), an internationally renown violinist," Tsao said.
The elder Hu also hand-drew a constellation chart which he reportedly passed on to his son as well.
"It was reported that the elder Hu told his son that if he ever managed to escape from the island, he'd have found the way back to Taiwan by referring to the chart," Tsao said.
Unfortunately, Hu failed to fulfill his dream. In fact, no one ever succeeded in escaping.
"It's like Alcatraz in a way. It's a small island isolated by razor sharp beach lines and choppy seas," Tsao said.
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