The Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau has saved two top-heavy Japanese-era safes from being thrown out by the county government.
The safes originally stood in the Changhua County Government’s offices, bureau Director Chen Wen-pin (陳文彬) said, adding that they are huge and were of no use, so they were going to be removed and sold to a used goods business.
Fortunately, the county’s Department of General affairs notified the bureau, and after an inspection, the bureau immediately “rescued” the safes and moved them back to its offices, Chen said, adding that each weighs more than 1 tonne.
Photo: Lin Liang-che, Taipei Times
Their exteriors are completely intact and their interiors have been kept in good condition, Chen said, adding that even the cabinets’ copper keys were kept.
According to trademarks on the exterior, the safes were manufactured in Tokyo in the 1930s, Chen said.
Printed on the interior doors are also the words “Changhua County Rice Control System” (彰化郡米穀統制組合), the name of a semi-public organization established in the 1930s, Chen said.
During the Japanese colonial era, the office of the governor-general of Taiwan set up rice-control systems in different administrative regions. The systems were all led by large local rice suppliers.
The office hoped to use the organizations to gain a grasp of rice production and output, but during the war period, the organization became an institution for governmental control of rice production, sales and rationing.
The regional rice control systems were canceled after the war, Chen said, adding that their assets were absorbed by the different local governments and the Changhua County Government might have acquired the two safes in this way.
As the objects are old, symbolic of their time and well-preserved, they could be transferred to the Institute of Changhua County History as treasured pieces, Chen added.
The safes have been temporarily placed in the sixth-floor lobby of the bureau’s offices.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS