Or rather what is left of it. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, they built two political prisons in Taiwan, to hold those people who spoke out against, or fought against the Japanese. They were built in the city to serve as a reminder to the Taiwanese citizens to fall in line.
Two days ago I mentioned the Allied bombings of Taiwan, and the POW camps in Taiwan. Well this prison actually housed American prisoners as well. Unlike the POW camps which brought in soldiers captured around Asia, these American prisoners were ones who flew planes over Taiwan. Some planes were shot down, some just crashed.
Fourteen of them were given a hasty trial and sentenced to death, while the rest were set free after the end of the war. Actually this reminds me of a point I forgot to bring up in my POW post. We all know about the infamous order given by the Japanese military control, telling all it's POW prisons around Asia to kill all of their prisoners if they find the allied forces are closing in. Well the only surviving copy of this document (and is housed in a museum in America) was found taken from one of the POW camps in Taiwan.
All that remains of the prison in Taipei is this one piece of the north wall. I included a person in the picture so you can hopefully see how tall it is. Further down you can see a small opening in the wall where a door must have been, but is now bricked in.
What's on the other side? The office of China Telecom, which provides internet, cellphone, etc. service in Taiwan. It was recently voted to be the telecommunications company with the worst customer service in Taiwan. I can think of three jokes that I'm dying to make just to bring some levity after the seriousness of the past few days. Instead I shall be respectful, and move on to happier topics for the next few days.
