Hualien Harbor Airfield (Karenko Airfield)

Hualien Harbor Airfield (花蓮港飛行場, also known as Karenko Airfield) was established on Taiwan's eastern Pacific coast in Hualien County during the Japanese colonial period. The site's aviation history traces back to the early 1920s when the Taiwan Governor-General's Police Bureau Aviation Section used a landing strip at Karīwan (加禮宛) for mountain reconnaissance and indigenous administration flights. In 1927, after the Police Aviation Section was dissolved, the Imperial Japanese Army assumed control of the facility.

The formal "Hualien Harbor North Airfield" (花蓮港北飛行場) was constructed in 1936 as a military-civil dual-use facility. On August 1, 1936, the Taiwan Governor-General inaugurated scheduled island-wide air routes connecting Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Yilan, and Hualien, operated by Japan Air Transport (日本航空輸送). Hualien's strategic position on the Pacific-facing east coast made it valuable for both civilian connectivity and military operations.

Following the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, the airfield's military role intensified dramatically. The Imperial Japanese Army stationed fighter and bomber units at Hualien as part of Formosa's (Taiwan's) broader defensive posture. The base supported operations related to Japan's initial southward offensive toward the Philippines and Southeast Asia, as the Imperial General Headquarters concentrated aviation assets in Taiwan for the zero-hour strikes on December 8, 1941.

As the war turned against Japan, Hualien became a target for Allied air attacks. On October 12, 1944, carrier-based aircraft from USS Hancock bombed the airfield and adjacent industrial targets during the Formosa Air Battle. Further attacks followed: on January 3, 1945, reconnaissance flights from USS Cowpens overflew the base; on April 1, 1945, B-25 bombers of the U.S. 38th Bombardment Group struck the field; and on April 23, 1945, P-51 fighters strafed and damaged runways and infrastructure. The U.S. Fifth Air Force conducted sustained bombing of Taiwan from January 11, 1945, totaling 7,709 sorties, over 15,000 tons of bombs, and more than 60,000 gallons of napalm across the island.

Despite repeated American air attacks — the airfield's location was well-known from aerial reconnaissance photography — Hualien Harbor Airfield became one of Taiwan's most important kamikaze staging bases during Operation Ten-Go (天號作戰), the Imperial Japanese military's final-stage plan to counter the Allied advance on Okinawa using massed special attack forces.

Between April and July 1945, a total of eleven kamikaze sorties were launched from the airfield during the Okinawa campaign. Twenty-five special attack pilots departed Hualien on one-way missions and never returned. The units involved included the Makoto 26th Sentai (誠第26戦隊), the 17th Flight Squadron, and Independent Flight Squadron 23, among others. By these accounts Hualien was the second-most-active kamikaze departure base in Taiwan, surpassed only by Hakkachō Airfield (八塊厝飛行場) in present-day Taoyuan.

The nearby Shōen Villa (松園別館, Pine Garden), built between 1942 and 1943 as the Hualien Harbor District Military Conscription Bureau, played a ceremonial role in these final missions. According to historical accounts, kamikaze pilots received ritual farewell sake (御前酒, goshizensake) — ceremonially presented as if blessed by the Emperor — in a small wooden structure adjacent to the Pine Garden on the eve of their sorties. The story of pilot Sakakibara Minoru (榊原實), who departed in June 1945 after his farewell ceremony at the Pine Garden, was documented when his surviving family members visited the site in 2018.

Anti-aircraft shelters remain in the vicinity of Pine Garden, and the villa itself — surrounded by towering Ryukyu pines — has been preserved as a cultural heritage site. Now a public cultural space with exhibitions, Pine Garden retains wartime photographs and interpretive displays connecting the building to the kamikaze operations that took place at the adjacent airfield.

After Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, the airfield was transferred to the Republic of China as part of Taiwan's retrocession. The ROC Air Force assumed control, and the facility was gradually developed into a modern military air base. Civilian operations formally commenced on May 16, 1962, with China Airlines inaugurating scheduled passenger service on October 20, 1962. Today the site operates as Hualien Air Base (花蓮空軍基地), sharing facilities with the civilian Hualien Airport, and is connected via taxiways to the nearby Chiashan (佳山) Air Force Base — a massive hardened mountain facility carved into solid rock during the 1980s–1990s.