Former Taiwan Army Headquarters

The Taiwan Army (台湾軍, Taiwan-gun) was one of the Imperial Japanese Army's regional commands, responsible for all Army operations and garrison duties on the island of Taiwan (Formosa) and the Penghu Islands. It was formally established on August 20, 1919, with its headquarters reportedly housed at first in the former premises of the Governor-General's Army Department in the old Taipei walled city. The headquarters was then established at Shoin-chō 3-chōme 2-banchi (書院町三丁目2番地) in Taipei — present-day 172 Bo'ai Road in Zhongzheng District.

The Taiwan Army's primary peacetime role was to maintain order, defend the island, and support colonial governance. During the 1930s and 1940s, it played a logistical role in Japan's southward advance into Southeast Asia. The headquarters building, a Western-style structure completed around 1920, served as the nerve center for military planning and operations across the Taiwan theater.

On September 22, 1944, in response to the growing Allied threat in the Pacific, Imperial General Headquarters formed the 10th Area Army (第十方面軍) on the basis of the Taiwan Army, whose commander led both; the Taiwan Army itself was redesignated the Taiwan Military District (台灣軍管區) on February 1, 1945. This elevated command was tasked with the decisive defense of Taiwan against the anticipated American invasion — Operation Causeway — which was ultimately cancelled in favor of the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The 10th Area Army controlled approximately 200,000 troops across Taiwan and incorporated air defense, coastal defense, and guerrilla preparations.

General Rikichi Andō (安藤利吉, 1884–1946), who had commanded the Taiwan Army since late 1941, continued as commander of the 10th Area Army. On December 30, 1944, he was additionally appointed the 19th and last Governor-General of Taiwan, making him the supreme military and civilian authority on the island. Under his command, Taiwan endured increasingly devastating Allied air raids throughout 1945, culminating in the massive Taipei Air Raid (台北大空襲) of May 31, 1945, when about 117 B-24 Liberator bombers struck the capital, damaging the headquarters building among other targets.

Following Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration on August 15, 1945, General Andō oversaw the orderly disarmament of Japanese forces on Taiwan. On October 25, 1945, at the Taipei Public Auditorium (台北公会堂, now Zhongshan Hall), Andō formally surrendered all Japanese military forces in Taiwan to General Chen Yi, representing Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the Allied Powers. This ceremony marked the end of fifty years of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan.

Andō was subsequently detained as a war crimes suspect and transferred to Shanghai, where he took his own life in custody on April 19, 1946. The former Taiwan Army Headquarters building on Bo'ai Road was not demolished: it passed to the Republic of China military and today houses the Ministry of National Defense's reserve command, in the same Zhongzheng District of Taipei as Zhongshan Hall. Zhongshan Hall itself, originally built in 1936 as the Taipei Public Auditorium, survives as a designated historic site and serves as a tangible link to the events of October 25, 1945.