Huwei Airfield

Huwei Airfield (虎尾飛行場, also known by its wartime designation Kobi) was one of the largest Imperial Japanese Navy airfields constructed in Taiwan during World War II. Located in Huwei Township, Yunlin County, the airfield has no documented construction date, but it was in existence by 1943 and its barracks were completed in 1944, as the war situation in the Pacific deteriorated and Japan sought to expand its pilot training capacity.

The airfield served as home base for the Huwei Naval Air Group (虎尾海軍航空隊), formally established in May 1944, primarily tasked with basic flight training for naval aviators. The facility was extensive, featuring dozens of aircraft revetments of various designs — both covered and open — along with anti-aircraft gun positions, a radar station (虎尾特設見張所), ammunition magazines, warehouses, and barracks. The roughly square-shaped landing area had revetments dispersed mainly to the west and east.

In the final months of the war the training mission could no longer be sustained: the Huwei Naval Air Group was disbanded on February 15, 1945 for lack of aircraft, fuel and personnel, its facilities were handed over to operational units, and the trainers it left behind were passed to the Chūsei-tai (忠誠隊), a special attack (kamikaze) unit formed in Taiwan. The nearby Huwei Sugar Factory, which had been operating since 1909, played a critical supporting role by producing anhydrous alcohol that was blended with gasoline to fuel military aircraft and vessels, making it an indispensable part of the wartime logistics chain.

During 1945, the airfield came under repeated Allied air attacks. American aircraft struck the base and the town in 1945; on June 23, five B-24s of the 43rd Bombardment Group's 403rd Squadron, flying from Clark Field, dropped 23 thousand-pound bombs on Huwei, causing heavy damage. On January 4, 1945, an American F6F-5 Hellcat pilot was shot down while strafing the airfield and was captured as a prisoner of war; his intact aircraft was seized and studied by the Japanese.

After Japan's surrender in August 1945, the Republic of China military took over the facility. The former Japanese barracks were converted into military dependents' villages known as Jianguo Villages (建國一村 through 四村), which housed air force personnel and their families. The airfield itself went through several phases of ROC Air Force use — elementary flight training (1950-1958), recruit training (1958-1985), and air defense command training (1985-2004) — before ceasing operations in 2004. Much of the original airfield was subsequently redeveloped for the Taiwan High Speed Rail Yunlin Station, National Huwei University of Science and Technology, and other public facilities. The Jianguo Village Cultural Park now preserves remnants of the site's layered military history.