Dozens of former political dissidents who were once jailed at the New Life Correction Center on Green Island returned to the site to attend a ceremony to inaugurate an exhibition at the reconstructed center.
The New Life Correction Center was the first facility to house political prisoners on Green Island. It did so from 1951 until 1965, when the prisoners were transferred to another prison in Taiwan proper.
Despite its historical significance, the original center, made of wood, gradually fell apart after it was abandoned.
“The mission of the Green Island Human Rights Culture Park is to let the younger generation know that there were once many people who were deprived of their basic rights just because they embraced different political beliefs from those who were in power,” said Lin Yung-fa (林永發), director-general of the National Taitung Living Art Center, which is in charge of the human rights park.
“Through reconstructed exhibitions, we wanted to show visitors the history as a living one and let people know that this park is not just a place for recreation,” he said. “It’s a page of our history that should inspire people for generations to come as well as raise their awareness of human rights.”
In the reconstructed political prison, there are not only photos of political prisoners from the 1950s, their life and Green Island at the time, but also life-size wax figures of political prisoners engaging in their daily activities.
“This is so real, this is exactly what we did and how it was at the time,” former political prisoner Chen Peng-yun (陳鵬雲), who was among the first political prisoners to be jailed on Green Island, said as he looked at wax figures showing how prisoners collected rocks from the coast to be used in the construction of a wall around the prison.
“I was one of those who had to pick up rocks from the coast,” he said.
“I didn’t [work on the wall], because I came later,” another former prisoner, Huang Kuang-hai (黃廣海), said, laughing.
Huang was jailed for 21 years in seven prisons — including the one on Green Island — for complaining about dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in a letter to a friend in Hong Kong.
“I remember this is how it was before we went to sleep every night,” Huang said as he walked into another part of the building with wax figures showing half-naked prisoners reading books, talking and playing guitar on bunk beds during the hour or two before going to sleep, when they were “free” to do whatever they wanted behind locked doors.
The reconstruction was completed with help from another former political prisoner, Chen Meng-ho (陳孟和), an artist and a photographer, and drew many pictures of the New Life Correction Center at the time.
Despite giving a big hand in the reconstruction process, Chen Meng-ho said he felt ashamed that he wasnprisoners at the time,” Chen said. “I feel sorry that I can’t do more, because I only have limited ability’t able to do more.
“This is all I can do, but I don’t think it’s enough — we can have a big museum showing everything about the lives of the political .”
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