Former Japanese naval facilities at the Fengshan Wireless Telecommunication Station in Kaohsiung County have been designated as the country’s 89th national historic site, the Council for Cultural Affairs said yesterday.
The facilities, covering an area of 9,414m², include bunkers, offices, classrooms, a radio station, a brick-built water tower, tower piers, bathrooms, huts, warehouses, two military dormitories and brick walls.
The station, founded between 1941 and 1943, was the only telecommunications base station established by the Japanese Navy during the Japanese colonial period between 1895 and 1945 and played a major role in the navy’s southern expansion policy, council data showed.
During World War II, the Japanese military set up a station on the site for detecting ships traveling in Southeast Asian waters and for gathering information.
After the war, the wireless telecommunications station was used for criminal investigations. In 1962, a naval disciplinary barracks was set up at the station, which was later converted into the Mingde Training Center for undisciplined military personnel and was closely related to the history of the White Terror era in Taiwan, which saw the purging of political dissidents during the country’s period of martial law between 1947 and 1987.
The station has been a closed military zone since the Mingde Training Center was recommissioned and is expected to be converted into a history park.
Meanwhile, a certificate of appointment of a local Aboriginal government issued during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (康熙) in the Qing Dynasty was declared a national treasure, while 10 other ancient artifacts were designated as important ancient heritage items.
The council described the certificate of appointment as being of great historic significance because it is an example of the communications that took place between the Qing government and Taiwan’s Aborigines.
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