Matsuyama Airfield (Songshan Airport)

Matsuyama Airfield (Japanese: 松山飛行場, also designated Taihoku Airfield / 臺北飛行場) was a military airfield established on March 28, 1936, in the Matsuyama district of Taihoku (present-day Songshan District, Taipei), during the Japanese colonial administration of Taiwan. It was the principal airfield serving the colonial capital and one of Taiwan's most strategically important aviation facilities.

The airfield initially offered civilian service, with Japan Air Transport operating scheduled flights to the Japanese home islands via Naha, but its military significance grew rapidly with the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kanoya Air Group (鹿屋海軍航空隊) deployed Type 96 G3M land-based attack bombers to Matsuyama. On August 14, 1937, an 18-bomber mission launched from the airfield to attack Jianqiao Airfield in Zhejiang Province and Guangde Airfield in Anhui Province. Chinese fighter aircraft intercepted the raid; Chinese accounts have claimed as many as six bombers destroyed, while Japanese records give two shot down and two more lost or written off after being damaged — the date was subsequently declared Chinese Air Force Day. This cross-strait bombing mission was one of the earliest transoceanic bombing operations in military aviation history.

On February 23, 1938, the Soviet Volunteer Group retaliated with a strike of 28 Tupolev SB bombers against Matsuyama Airfield, reportedly destroying 40 aircraft on the ground (Japanese sources claimed only 12 losses). This was one of the few foreign air attacks on Japanese-held territory before the later American bombing campaign.

During the Pacific War, the airfield served as a staging base for Japanese naval and army air operations across Southeast Asia. In 1944, the Japanese Army's 37th Kyoiku Hikotai (教育飛行隊), a training unit equipped with Ki-61 Hien fighters, was established at Matsuyama. Many of its instructors were later committed to combat against American forces over Taiwan and the Japanese home islands during the war's final months.

The airfield came under sustained Allied air attack from late 1944. On October 12, 1944, carrier aircraft from USS Bunker Hill struck the installation during the Formosa Air Battle (台湾沖航空戦). From March to August 1945, the US Army Far East Air Forces conducted repeated bombing missions using B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, and A-20 Havocs. On April 12-13, 1945, Avenger torpedo bombers from HMS Victorious damaged the runways and barracks.

The most devastating attack came on May 31, 1945, during the Raid on Taipei (臺北大空襲), when 117 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers of the Fifth Air Force dropped approximately 3,800 bombs on military and governmental targets across Taihoku in a three-hour bombardment from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The death toll is often given as over 3,000, but the Government-General's air-raid statistics recorded 759 deaths in Taihoku Prefecture for the whole of May 1945. The raid was aimed mainly at government offices and army installations in the old walled-city area rather than at the airfield. The Japanese offered virtually no aerial resistance, their fighter strength in Taiwan having been exhausted during the earlier Aerial Battle of Taiwan-Okinawa. The final American bombing mission against the airfield took place on August 12, 1945, using B-24 bombers flying from Okinawa.

After Japan's surrender, the Republic of China Air Force took over the base in 1946 and renamed it Songshan Airport (松山機場), the Chinese pronunciation of the same kanji characters. Mixed military-civilian operations commenced on April 16, 1950. The airfield underwent extensive modernization and today operates as Taipei Songshan Airport, the city's domestic and regional international airport.