Park at a Glance

　　　　◆Map of Green Island Human Rights Memorial Park.(provided by Taiwan Art-in Design Company)

  Archeological investigations show that prehistoric human activity here goes back about 4000 years. The various indigenous peoples of Taiwan believe they came from “Sanasai,” their name for Green Island. Prehistoric links with the Austronesian peoples throughout the Pacific and Indian oceans have long interested archeologists and anthropologists.

  200 years ago the first Han people came here from Siao Liuciou, off southwest Taiwan. Spreading throughout the island, they now comprise four villages. Early-period dwellings were squat structures with roofs of local wood atop walls of stacked coral. Liuma Ditch is near a prison built during Japanese colonial rule, the Burnt Island Detention Center for Vagrants (1911~1919). After the war, the Kuomintang government opened first the New Life Correction Center, and later the Ministry of National Defense Green Island Reform and Reeducation Prison. With martial law ended, it became the Ministry of Interior’s Green Island Vocational Training Center. Each of these prisons has left behind different political slogans as the signatures of their times.

　　　　◆Gongguanbi

Broken-rock slope on the western side of Gongguanbi, a prehistoric site.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Gongguan Village, south

Cultivated fields show the legacy of scattered rubble of archeological digs.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Human Rights Memorial Park

Plaque memorializing the White Terror victims.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Coast Guard Dormitory

“Living in Peace, Vigilant to Danger.” The wall of reef rock was built by New Life inmates.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆“Exterminate the Communists, Restore the Country”

　　　　A political slogan typifying the period of the KMT-CCP Civil War.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Three-peak Rock, General’s Rock

　　　　Striking landmarks on the way into the park. (Provided by Taiwan Art-in Design Company, photo by Liu Chen-hsiang)

　　　　◆Elephant’s Trunk Rock

　　　　Elephant Trunk Rock was known by the prisoners as “Devil’s Gate.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Oasis Villa Rock

　　　　Rock inscribed with “Oasis Villa,”built in 1970.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Oasis Villa

　　　　The Ministry of National Defense Green Island Reform and Reeducation Prison (Oasis Villa) (photo by Pan Hsiao-hsia)

　　　　◆New Life Correction Center

　　　　The prison was used in the 1950s to house political inmates. (Photo by Chen Meng-ho)

　　　　◆“Our Exile, Never Forgotten”

　　　　The slogan invokes an event that took place 2300 years ago in Shandong on the Chinese mainland, where General Tian Dan led the military and the people as a combined force.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Green Island Vocational Training Center

　　　　The red-tiled complex, also known as “Jingdeh Villa,” pulled out of Green Island on 31 December 2002.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Tzuhang Temple

　　　　Constructed by the Third Training Squad of the Green Island Command Unit in 1985 for worship by the Training Squad, officers and troops. Nearby is the crematorium and burial ground for New Life Correction Center inmates.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Mouth of the Liuma Gulley

　　　　At the east of the park is where Liuma Gulley enters the sea. Before the reservoir was built, it served as prison water supply. Eel, fish and shrimp could be caught in it.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Rock-breaking Area

　　　　The area alongside the reef to the north was where inmates broke up reef rock in the early days of the New Life Correction Center.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Thirteenth Squadron

　　　　There were 12 squadrons in the New Life Correction Center. “Squadron 13” was where inmates, officers and troops were buried.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Swallow Cave

　　　　Here New Lifers rehearsed plays, painted backdrops, and cremated fellow inmates. The cool cave hosted a stage that they fashioned of reef rock.(photo by Ronald Tsao)

　　　　◆Ox Head Hill
　　　　Last rays of the setting sun over the park area.(photo by Ronald Tsao)