All historic sites
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217 sites · page 4 of 10
Taiwan Governor-General Tainan Hospital (now MOHW Tainan Hospital)
台湾総督府台南医院（現・衛生福利部台南医院）
The earliest large public modern hospital in Tainan, established in 1896 as one of the first modern medical institutions under the Taiwan Governor-General. The hospital treated both military and civilian patients throughout the colonial era and suffered significant bomb damage during Allied air raids in 1944, forcing evacuation of its outpatient services. Now operating as the Ministry of Health and Welfare Tainan Hospital, it is one of Taiwan's oldest continuously operating hospitals.
Taiwan Governor-General Taipei Hospital (NTU Hospital Old Building)
台湾総督府台北医院（台大医院旧館）
Built between 1912 and 1921 to designs by architect Kondō Jūrō, the Taiwan Governor-General Taipei Hospital was the largest and most modern hospital in Southeast Asia upon completion. The Renaissance Revival-style red brick and reinforced concrete building served as the colony's premier medical facility throughout the Japanese era. Annexed to the Medical School of Taihoku Imperial University in 1938, it was renamed National Taiwan University Hospital in 1945. Designated a municipal historic monument in 1998, the building now serves as the West Campus of NTU Hospital and remains one of the finest examples of colonial-era medical architecture in Asia.
Taiwan Governor-General Taipei Industrial School
台湾総督府台北工業学校
Colonial-era industrial school established in 1912 by the Taiwan Governor-General's Office in Taipei's Da'an District, now the campus of National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech). As Taiwan's first industrial education institution, it trained technicians and industrial workers essential to the colony's modernization. During WWII, students were mobilized to work in military factories supporting Japan's war effort. The 1926 Red Building (紅樓) survives as a designated municipal historic site.
Taiwan Kenpeitai Headquarters Site
台湾憲兵隊本部跡
Site of the headquarters of the Taiwan Kenpeitai (臺灣憲兵隊), the Imperial Japanese Army military police force responsible for maintaining military order, conducting intelligence operations, and suppressing anti-Japanese resistance across colonial Taiwan from 1895 to 1945. Originally established in August 1895 immediately after Japan's acquisition of Taiwan, the Kenpeitai headquarters was located in the Nogi-chō (乃木町) district of Taipei, an area now bounded by modern-day Zhonghua Road, Changsha Street, and Yanping South Road in Zhongzheng District. The organization underwent multiple reorganizations — unified as the 13th Military Police Unit in 1904, renamed the Taiwan Kenpeitai in 1907, and elevated to a full Taiwan Kenpeitai Command (臺灣憲兵隊司令部) in May 1942 to strengthen wartime security and counter-espionage. The Kenpeitai played a central role in the early military pacification campaigns against Taiwanese armed resistance (1895–1902), colonial-era political surveillance, and wartime security enforcement. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the site was taken over by the Republic of China military police and continues to serve military functions to this day.
Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō (Taiwan Daily News)
台湾日日新報社
The Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō (臺灣日日新報) was the largest, most influential, and longest-running newspaper in colonial Taiwan, published from 1898 to 1944. Headquartered in the Sakaemachi district of Taipei (present-day intersection of Zhonghua Road and Hengyang Road), the newspaper served as the principal propaganda organ of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, shaping public opinion throughout Japanese colonial rule and the Pacific War.
Taiwan Railway Hotel
台湾鉄道ホテル
Taiwan's first Western-style luxury hotel, built in 1908 by the Governor-General's Railway Department near Taipei Station. The three-story German-influenced brick building served as a premier accommodation for Japanese officials and foreign dignitaries throughout the colonial period until its destruction by American air raids on May 31, 1945.
Taiwan Shonenko Memorial
台湾少年工記念碑
A memorial monument in the War and Peace Memorial Park in Kaohsiung's Qijin District, unveiled in 2023, honoring the approximately 8,400 Taiwanese teenagers (少年工/Shonenko) who were recruited from late 1942 and sent from 1943 onward to work at the Koza Naval Arsenal in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, manufacturing Raiden interceptor fighter aircraft during World War II. The boys, aged 12 to 19, left Taiwan from the port of Kaohsiung and endured wartime labor far from home.
Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company Headquarters
台湾製糖株式会社本社
Headquarters of the Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company (Taiwan Seito), one of the largest sugar enterprises in colonial Taiwan. Founded by the Mitsui zaibatsu in 1900, the company pioneered modern sugar refining on the island and came to control about a dozen mills across Taiwan.
Taiwan Wartime Alcohol Fuel Factories
台湾酒精工場（航空燃料用無水酒精製造施設）
A network of alcohol production facilities across colonial Taiwan operated under the Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau, converted during WWII to produce anhydrous ethanol as a substitute for petroleum-based aviation fuel. Sugarcane molasses and sweet potatoes were fermented and distilled into high-purity ethanol, forming a critical component of Japan's wartime fuel self-sufficiency strategy as Allied naval blockades severed petroleum imports. Major facilities included the Banzitian anhydrous alcohol plant in present-day Tainan, the Taichung Alcohol Factory, and facilities at Houli and Huatan.
Takao Prefectural Office (Kaohsiung)
高雄州庁
The Takao (Kaohsiung) Prefectural Office was the seat of the administration of Takao Prefecture in southern Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. Completed in 1931 in the modern Romanesque architectural style along the Love River, it served as the seat of governance for Takao Prefecture, which encompassed present-day Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County. The building was damaged by American air raids during World War II. After the war, it was repaired and converted into the Kaohsiung District Court. Major renovations in 1966 stripped much of the original ornamentation, and the building was ultimately demolished in 1987 for court reconstruction. The site is located near the former Takao City Hall, now the Kaohsiung Museum of History.
Takao Railway Museum (Former Kaohsiung Port Station)
旧打狗駅故事館（高雄港駅）
The former Kaohsiung Port Station (Takao Station), originally built in 1900, was nearly destroyed by sustained US air raids in 1944-45. The current station building was rebuilt in 1947 and is now preserved as the Takao Railway Museum, displaying wartime photographs and the history of Kaohsiung's role as a key logistics hub targeted by American strategic bombing.
Takao Shrine Ruins (now Kaohsiung Martyrs' Shrine)
高雄神社跡（現高雄忠烈祠）
The former Takao Shrine (高雄神社), established in 1910 as Takao Kotohira Shrine on Shoushan (壽山) in Kaohsiung, was the most important Shinto shrine in colonial Takao Prefecture. Elevated to prefectural shrine rank (県社) in 1932, it served as a spiritual center for Japanese colonial rule in southern Taiwan. After Japan's surrender in 1945 the shrine was converted into a martyrs' shrine; the Japanese structures were demolished in 1974 under a rebuilding plan launched in 1973 and replaced by the current Chinese palace-style Kaohsiung Martyrs' Shrine, completed in 1978. Remnants of the original shrine — stone lantern bases, komainu guardian lions, and the torii approach — survive on the grounds.
Tapani Incident Memorial Park (Xilai Temple Incident Memorial)
噍吧哖事件記念園区（西来庵事件記念園区）
Memorial park in Yujing District, Tainan, commemorating the Tapani Incident (噍吧哖事件) of 1915 — the largest and bloodiest armed uprising against Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan. Led by Yu Qingfang (余清芳), Luo Jun (羅俊), and Jiang Ding (江定), the revolt combined folk religion and millenarian beliefs with armed resistance. The park was established in 2015 on the centennial of the incident, occupying renovated Japanese-era buildings of the former Yujing Sugar Factory (玉井糖廠), and features exhibition halls displaying historical photographs, weapons, and documents from the uprising.
Taroko (Truku) War Site
太魯閣戦争跡
Site of the Truku War (太魯閣戰爭, May–August 1914), the largest military campaign in colonial Taiwan's history. Governor-General Sakuma Samata mobilized a force usually put at around 20,000 soldiers, police and labourers to subjugate the Truku indigenous people in the mountainous Taroko Gorge region, in a campaign of roughly three months that reshaped Japan's colonial control over Taiwan's indigenous territories.
War and Peace Memorial Park and Theme Hall
戦争と平和紀念公園
A memorial park and museum on Cijin Island, Kaohsiung, commemorating the approximately 207,000 Taiwanese conscripts who served in the Japanese Imperial forces and later in the ROC military during the Chinese Civil War and Korean War. The park came into use in 2004–05 and its Theme Hall opened on 20 May 2009; it was built through the long advocacy of veteran Hsu Chao-jung (許昭榮), who self-immolated at the site on 20 May 2008 in protest against the city council's decision to rename the park and what he saw as official neglect of Taiwanese veterans.
Wulai Takasago Volunteer Corps Memorial Park
高砂義勇隊紀念園區
A memorial park in Wulai District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, commemorating the approximately 4,000 Taiwanese indigenous people — primarily Atayal — conscripted by the Imperial Japanese Army as "Takasago Volunteers" (高砂義勇隊) and sent to fight in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the Pacific during World War II. Estimates of the dead range from about 2,800 to more than 3,000. The cenotaph was relocated here on 8 February 2006 with funds raised by Japanese donors, and the renovated park reopened on 30 June 2022.
Wushantou Reservoir & Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park
烏山頭水庫（八田與一記念園区）
Wushantou Reservoir in Guantian District, Tainan, is the core of the Chianan Irrigation System (嘉南大圳), the largest irrigation project in East Asia at the time of its completion in 1930. Designed by Japanese engineer Hatta Yoichi (八田與一), the reservoir transformed the Chianan Plain into Taiwan's most productive agricultural region, vital for wartime rice and sugarcane production. The adjacent Hatta Yoichi Memorial Park preserves his residence and bronze statue.
Yilan North Airfield (Giran Airfield)
宜蘭北飛行場
One of three Japanese military airfields in Yilan, Taiwan, the North Airfield (Giran Airfield) was established in 1936 and became a major staging base for kamikaze special attack squadrons during the final year of WWII. Sixty-two special-attack aircraft sortied from the Yilan airfield complex between April and June 1945. A number of hardened aircraft shelters survive in the area, and remains of the airfields are protected as registered historic buildings.
Zhishanyan Shrine Ruins (Six Teachers Memorial)
芝山巖神社跡（六氏先生祭祀地）
The ruins of Zhishanyan Shrine (芝山巖神社), a Shinto shrine established in February 1930 on the hilltop of Zhishanyan (芝山岩) in Shilin, Taipei, commemorating the "Six Teachers" (六氏先生) — six Japanese educators killed by Taiwanese resistance fighters on 1 January 1896 in the Zhishanyan Incident (芝山巖事件). The shrine enshrined 330 educators who contributed to Japan's colonial education system in Taiwan and was regarded as the "sacred site of Taiwan education" (臺灣教育の聖地). Adjacent to the Qing-dynasty Huiji Temple (惠濟宮), the hilltop site also contained the Itō Hirobumi-calligraphed "Monument to Fallen Education Officials" (學務官僚遭難之碑, erected 1 July 1896) and the joint grave of the Six Teachers. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the KMT government demolished the shrine, destroyed the monument and graves, and converted the hilltop into a restricted military zone protecting the nearby Shilin Official Residence. The military restrictions were lifted in the 1980s; the Six Teachers' grave was rebuilt in 1995 and the monument restored in 2000. Today the scattered shrine ruins — stone steps, foundation stones, and defensive structures — remain in Zhishan Park alongside the restored memorials.
Alishan Forest Railway
阿里山森林鉄道
A narrow-gauge mountain railway in Chiayi County, Taiwan, built by the Japanese colonial government beginning in 1906 to extract precious Taiwanese cypress (hinoki) and Taiwania timber from the Alishan mountain range. Reaching an elevation of 2,451 meters, the 86-kilometer network featured innovative Z-shaped switchbacks, over 50 tunnels, and 77 bridges. During WWII, the railway served as a critical resource extraction infrastructure, supplying timber for military construction across the Japanese Empire. Designated Taiwan's first national-level cultural landscape in 2019.
Anping Old Fort (Fort Zeelandia)
安平古堡（旧熱蘭遮城）
Originally Fort Zeelandia, built by the Dutch East India Company from 1624 to 1634, this fortress in Anping, Tainan is one of Taiwan's oldest fortifications. During Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945), the remaining Dutch structures were largely demolished and the site was used for customs officials' housing and a customs club. The Japanese authorities built a brick platform over the ruins and, around 1944, an air-defence watchtower that — remodelled after the war — remains a landmark today.
Anping Port
安平港
Anping Port (安平港) is a historic harbor in Anping District, Tainan, Taiwan, with origins dating back to the Dutch colonial era in the 17th century. During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), the port underwent significant modernization: the Taiwan Governor-General's Office dredged the old canal waterways and constructed a new Tainan Canal (臺南運河) between 1921 and 1926 to reconnect Tainan city center with the port. A new harbor facility was built 2 km south of the old port between 1935 and 1936 at a cost of 770,000 yen. During World War II, Anping served as a logistics and shipping node for the Japanese military in southern Taiwan. The port area and surrounding Tainan city were heavily targeted by Allied air raids from late 1944, and the port's facilities sustained significant wartime damage. Anping is also associated with some of the first Taiwanese military laborers (軍夫) to die in the Second Sino-Japanese War, commemorated by the Tomb of the Twelve Military Porters built in 1938–39. After the war, the damaged port was gradually rebuilt, and a completely new commercial port was constructed in the 1970s. Today Anping Port operates as both a fishing harbor and an international commercial port.
Asano Cement Kaohsiung Plant (Taiwan Cement Kaohsiung Plant)
浅野セメント株式会社高雄工場
Taiwan's first modern cement factory, established in 1917 by the Asano zaibatsu at the foot of Shoushan (Takao Mountain) in Kaohsiung. The plant exploited high-quality limestone deposits to supply cement for harbor construction, military installations, and infrastructure across colonial Taiwan, producing up to 410,000 tonnes annually by 1937. Nationalized in 1946 as Taiwan Cement Corporation's Kaohsiung Plant. Three original 1918 lime kilns and a red-brick warehouse survive as registered historical buildings.
Bank of Taiwan, Tainan Branch
台湾銀行台南支店
The Bank of Taiwan Tainan Branch was one of the earliest regional branches of the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), the central financial institution of colonial Taiwan. Established in 1899 at Ōmiyachō (大宮町) in Tainan, it played a pivotal role in facilitating colonial economic policies — financing sugar production, infrastructure development, and trade across southern Taiwan. As the primary issuer of Taiwan Bank Notes (臺灣銀行券), the bank served as the backbone of the colonial monetary system. The original branch building, a representative example of Meiji-era colonial banking architecture, stood on what is now Yongfu Road. After WWII, the branch was reorganized under the Republic of China government on May 20, 1946, and relocated to its current site at No. 155, Section 1, Fuqian Road in 1962.