Takao Railway Museum (Former Kaohsiung Port Station)

The Takao Railway Museum (舊打狗驛故事館) occupies the site of the former Takao Station (打狗駅), Kaohsiung's first railway station, established in 1900 during the Japanese colonial period. Located adjacent to Kaohsiung Harbor in Gushan District, the station served as the critical land-sea transshipment hub connecting the port to Taiwan's interior rail network.

During the Pacific War, Kaohsiung was Taiwan's foremost industrial and military center. The US Fifth Air Force identified Kaohsiung Port and its rail infrastructure as priority targets. Beginning with the US carrier strikes of October 12, 1944 and the raids by some 130 B-29 bombers on the Gangshan (Okayama) air base and naval air depot that followed over the next days, and continuing through the January 15, 1945 carrier-based attack from USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) and subsequent raids until August 1945, the port station was repeatedly bombed.

According to the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, from October 12, 1944 to August 10, 1945, Takao Prefecture (Kaohsiung) suffered 1,662 killed, 15 missing, 1,031 seriously wounded, and 1,385 lightly wounded — a total of 4,093 casualties, the highest of any prefecture. Across Taiwan as a whole, some 10,241 buildings were totally destroyed, 17,972 partially destroyed, 16,080 totally burned, and 1,047 partially burned. According to US Fifth Air Force records, a total of 2,559.2 tons of bombs was dropped on Kaohsiung — the heaviest bombardment of any city in Taiwan.

The station complex — including buildings, tracks, and turntable — was almost completely destroyed. The current structure dates from the 1947 reconstruction. It was converted into a museum, opened on 24 October 2010 as the Takao Railway Museum (打狗鐵道故事館) and renamed the Old Takao Station Story House (舊打狗驛故事館) in 2017, preserving the outdoor rail yard with historic locomotives and rolling stock. The museum displays wartime aerial photographs showing the devastation of the port area.