Colonial Rule
植民地統治
Administration, economy and society in Taiwan, Korea and Manchuria under Japanese rule.
History
This theme covers administration, economy and society in Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria and other territories under Japanese rule, including government offices, shrines, schools, industries and settlements built under that rule, and the sites of resistance to it. Under this site's scope policy overseas territories are opt-in, and the default view is the Japanese home islands.
Japan's colonial empire took shape after the Sino-Japanese War. Taiwan was acquired under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. After the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 Japan gained southern Sakhalin, the Kwantung Leased Territory and the South Manchuria Railway, made Korea a protectorate and annexed it in 1910; after the First World War it administered the South Seas islands under a League of Nations mandate. Japan governed Taiwan (1895–1945) and Korea (1910–1945) through Governments-General whose heads held sweeping executive and legislative powers, and controlled Manchuria through the Kwantung Army, which staged the Manchurian Incident in 1931 and created Manchukuo the next year — nominally independent, in practice run by the army and Japanese officials. Early rule relied on armed suppression; after the March First Movement in Korea in 1919 there was a turn to more conciliatory "cultural rule". After 1937 the kōminka (imperialisation) policies were imposed in Taiwan and Korea — Japanese language, shrine worship, Japanese-style names — together with volunteer systems and conscription (Korea 1944, Taiwan 1945), and both were treated as bases for war industry and for operations on the continent and to the south.
Colonial rule is indispensable to understanding wartime Japan: much of the empire's food, raw materials, labour and manpower came from the colonies, and unresolved postwar issues such as labour mobilisation, the "comfort women" and compensation for colonial soldiers and civilian employees originate here. Assessments differ between Japan and the former territories and within those societies; the record of railways, irrigation, schooling and public health coexisted with political exclusion, economic subordination and pressure to assimilate, and this site sets out the documented facts side by side. With defeat in 1945 Japan lost all its overseas territories, millions of Japanese were repatriated, and the territories faced changes of regime and division.
Under this theme visitors will find Government-General and prefectural offices, monopoly and communications bureaux, stations and harbour works, sugar mills and mines, shrine remains, schools and hospitals, Japanese settler villages, and memorials and prison sites associated with events such as the Tapani and Musha incidents and the March First Movement. Many of the buildings continued in use after the war as government offices or cultural facilities.
Related sites (222)
Manmo Pioneer Peace Memorial Museum
満蒙開拓平和記念館
The only museum in Japan dedicated to the history of the Manchurian-Mongolian colonization program. Located in Achi Village, Nagano Prefecture — the prefecture that sent the most emigrants to Manchuria — the museum commemorates the approximately 270,000 Japanese agricultural settlers dispatched to Manchukuo under government schemes from the 1930s onward. Of these, an estimated 80,000 perished from starvation, disease, Soviet attack, and mass suicide following the Soviet invasion of August 1945, when the Kwantung Army abandoned the defenseless settlers.
Hualien Port
花蓮港
A major port on the east coast of Taiwan constructed by the Japanese colonial government between 1931 and 1939. Originally built as a commercial harbor using innovative land-excavation engineering, it was converted to military use during WWII for naval logistics and resource shipment, and was heavily damaged by Allied air raids in 1945.
South Manchuria Railway Tokyo Office Site
南満州鉄道株式会社東京支社跡
The South Manchuria Railway Company (南満州鉄道株式会社, commonly known as Mantetsu/満鉄) maintained its Tokyo branch office as the critical liaison between the colonial enterprise in Manchuria and the Japanese government in the capital. Originally established at Azabu-Mamiana-chō in 1907 when the headquarters relocated to Dalian, the Tokyo office later moved to Akasaka-ku Aoi-chō 2-banchi (present-day Toranomon 2-chōme), where a purpose-built reinforced concrete building was completed in 1936 during President Yōsuke Matsuoka's tenure. The "Mantetsu Building" (満鉄ビル) served as the nerve center for the company's Japan-side operations — lobbying the Diet, coordinating with the military and zaibatsu, managing investment flows, and operating the Manchuria Resource Exhibition Hall (満洲資源陳列所) which showcased Manchurian natural resources and industrial potential to investors and policymakers. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the building was requisitioned by SCAP/GHQ and repurposed as a U.S. Embassy annex and residence for occupation forces families. The original structure was demolished and replaced by the current Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Building (商船三井ビルディング, formerly Toranomon Dai Building) completed in 1979.
Taiwan Governor-General's Office
台湾総督府
The Taiwan Governor-General's Office (台灣總督府), completed in 1919, served from then until 1945 as the supreme administrative center of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan (1895–1945). Designed by Uheiji Nagano and modified by Matsunosuke Moriyama, the Renaissance-style building with its iconic 60-meter central tower was the tallest structure in the Taipei Basin during Japanese rule. On May 31, 1945, it was directly hit during the devastating Raid on Taipei by 117 U.S. B-24 Liberator bombers (118 in some accounts), suffering extensive fire damage. Restored in 1947–1948, it now serves as the Presidential Office Building of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Taiwan Grand Shrine
臺灣神宮
The Taiwan Grand Shrine (Taiwan Jingū) was the highest-ranking Shinto shrine in colonial Taiwan, originally established in 1901 as the Taiwan Shrine (Taiwan Jinja) on Jiantan Mountain beside Maruyama (Yuanshan) in Taihoku (Taipei). Dedicated to Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa and the three pioneering deities (Kaitaku Sanjin), it was elevated to Grand Shrine status in 1944 when Amaterasu was enshrined. On October 23, 1944, a Japanese military aircraft crashed beside the newly built shrine precinct, and the resulting fire destroyed many of its structures. The shrine was never repaired; after Japan's surrender the original site was cleared for the Taiwan Hotel, which was renamed the Grand Hotel Taipei in 1952 and still stands on the original Jiantan Mountain site today.
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.
Kinkaseki POW Camp (Jinguashi Allied POW Memorial Park)
金瓜石捕虜収容所
The Kinkaseki Prisoner of War Camp was one of the most brutal Japanese POW camps in colonial Taiwan (Formosa), operational from November 1942 to March 1945 at Kinkaseki (present-day Jinguashi), Ruifang District, New Taipei City. Over 1,100 British Commonwealth and Allied prisoners — predominantly British, with Australian, Canadian, Dutch, and American servicemen — were forced to perform gruelling slave labour deep inside the adjacent copper mine under extreme conditions including temperatures exceeding 40°C, starvation rations, frequent beatings, and no safety provisions. Of the approximately 430 Allied POW deaths across all fourteen Japanese camps on Taiwan, the majority occurred at Kinkaseki. The camp closed in March 1945 when Allied naval interdiction made ore shipment to Japan impossible, and surviving prisoners were relocated to Kukutsu camp. The site lay forgotten until its rediscovery in 1990. On 23 November 1997, an international memorial was dedicated on the original camp grounds, and in 2011 a bronze "Mates" sculpture depicting two emaciated prisoners was unveiled. The memorial park — now known as the Taiwan POW Memorial and Peace Park — includes a 56-foot Wall of Names listing all POWs by rank and origin.
Keelung Fortress (Baimiweng Fort and Battery Complex)
基隆要塞（白米甕砲台）
The Keelung Fortress was the principal coastal defense system protecting northern Taiwan, centered on the strategic port of Keelung (Kiirun). Originally established during the Qing Dynasty with batteries guarding the harbor approaches, the fortress complex was substantially expanded and modernized by the Imperial Japanese Army from 1899 under the "Keelung Fortress Defense (Permanent) Essentials" plan. The most prominent surviving installation is the Baimiweng Fort (白米甕砲台), completed in 1902 with four 203.5mm Armstrong cannons at 70 meters elevation, representing the apex of Japanese colonial coastal artillery design in Taiwan. The fortress system included batteries at Dawulun, Gangziliao, Sheliao East, Ershawan, and Shiqiuling, collectively forming a ring of fire around Keelung Harbor. During WWII, the fortress defended against Allied air and naval operations targeting Keelung port. Today the batteries are designated as municipal monuments and national historic sites.
Taiwan Governor-General Office (Taipei Air Raid Site)
台湾総督府（台北大空襲被災）
The Taiwan Governor-General Office, today the Presidential Office Building, was the primary target of the May 31, 1945 Taipei Air Raid. About 117 B-24 Liberator bombers (118 in some accounts) struck central Taipei from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM; the death toll is often given as over 3,000, although Governor-General's Office statistics recorded 759 air-raid deaths in Taihoku Prefecture for all of May 1945. Direct hits set the building on fire, reportedly for three days, and reportedly damaged 83% of its floor area. It was not fully repaired until 1948.
Taipei 228 Memorial Museum (Taipei Air Raid Exhibition Venue)
台北二二八紀念館（台北大空襲展示施設）
The Taipei 228 Memorial Museum, housed in a former Japanese-era radio broadcasting station in 228 Peace Memorial Park, has hosted the main public exhibitions commemorating the 1945 Taipei Air Raid. In 2007 the Taipei City Government published the first book dedicated to the air raid to accompany an exhibition here. The 70th anniversary traveling exhibition of 144 US National Archives photographs was also displayed here in 2015.
Tainan Prefecture Office
台南州庁
The Tainan Prefecture Office (台南州廳) was the highest administrative center in Tainan during the Japanese colonial period of Taiwan. Designed by prominent architect Moriyama Matsunosuke and completed in 1916, the Late Renaissance-style building served as the seat of the Tainan Prefectural Government. On March 1, 1945, U.S. B-24 bombers devastated the building during the Great Tainan Air Raid, with incendiary bombs destroying the Mansard roof, watchtowers, and all wooden structural elements, leaving only the outer walls standing. After the war it was roughly repaired for the ROC Air Force Supply Command (1949) and then served as Tainan City Hall from 1969 until 1997. Following extensive restoration, it reopened in 2003 as the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, Taiwan's first national museum dedicated to literary arts.
Taipei Prefecture Office
台北州庁
The Taipei Prefecture Office (台北州廳), completed in 1915 as the office of Taihoku-chō (台北廳), was from 1920 the administrative headquarters of Taihoku Prefecture (台北州) during Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan (1895–1945). Designed by prominent colonial architect Matsunosuke Moriyama (森山松之助), the Renaissance-style red brick building served as the seat of government for northern Taiwan — encompassing modern-day Taipei, Keelung, and Yilan. After Japan's surrender in 1945 the building passed to the Republic of China authorities, and since 1958 it has housed the Control Yuan (監察院). It is designated a National Monument (國定古蹟) and is considered one of the best-preserved post-Renaissance colonial buildings in Taiwan.
Former Kaohsiung City Hall (Kaohsiung Museum of History)
旧高雄市役所（高雄市立歴史博物館）
The former Kaohsiung City Hall (高雄市役所, Takao Shiyakusho), completed in September 1939 during the Japanese colonial period, is one of the finest surviving examples of Imperial Crown Style (帝冠式) architecture in Taiwan. Designed by architect Ōno Yonezirō of the Shimizu Corporation, the reinforced-concrete building was erected on the banks of the Love River (formerly Takao River) in the Sakaemachi district (present-day Yancheng District). The building served as the administrative centre of Takao City under Japanese rule, functioning within the broader colonial governance structure headed by the Takao Prefecture Hall (高雄州廳). After Japan's surrender in August 1945, the building was taken over as the Kaohsiung City Government office, serving this role until January 1992. Designated a municipal historic site in 2004, it reopened in October 1998 as the Kaohsiung Museum of History — Taiwan's first municipal history museum.
Sun Moon Lake Hydroelectric Power Plant (Daguan / Mingtan Power Plants)
日月潭水力發電所
Colonial Taiwan's largest hydroelectric complex, built by Taiwan Electric Power Company (台灣電力株式會社) between 1919 and 1934 at Sun Moon Lake, Nantou Prefecture. With five 22 MW generators (about 100 MW rated output), it was the largest hydroelectric power plant in Asia upon completion. The facility supplied over 60% of Taiwan's total electricity, powering wartime industries including aluminum smelting, chemical manufacturing, and military production. Heavily bombed by US aircraft in March 1945, destroying the main transformers and crippling Taiwan's industrial power supply. Now preserved as the Daguan Power Plant (大觀發電廠) and Mingtan Power Plant (明潭發電廠), both still operated by Taipower.
Gushan Cave (Shoushan Air-Raid Shelter Tunnel)
鼓山洞（寿山防空トンネル）
A 200-meter air-raid shelter tunnel excavated by the Japanese colonial Railway Bureau during WWII in 1939, built into the limestone of Shoushan mountain to protect railway workers and passengers from the devastating US air raids on Kaohsiung. Now a designated military heritage site open to the public, featuring stalactite formations that have grown over the decades since the war.
Banpingshan Tunnel Factories (6th Naval Fuel Depot Remnants)
半屏山日本軍坑道洞窟工場（第六海軍燃料廠跡）
Three underground factory tunnels excavated into the south slope of Banpingshan (Half-Screen Mountain) in late 1944 by the Japanese Navy, after continuous US air raids made surface operations at the 6th Naval Fuel Depot impossible. The tunnels housed oxygen production and machinery workshops. Accidentally rediscovered during high-speed rail construction in 2002-2003, they remain as rare surviving examples of wartime underground industrial facilities.
Penghu Xiyu Battery Group (Xiyu East Fort & West Fort)
澎湖西嶼砲台群（西嶼東臺・西台古堡）
Paired Qing Dynasty coastal batteries on Xiyu (Fisherman Island) in the Penghu Archipelago, guarding the Taiwan Strait. Xiyu West Fort (西台古堡, completed 1889) is the largest and best-preserved historic battery in Penghu at about 8 hectares, with massive tunnel networks concealed within basalt cliffs and four Armstrong breech-loading cannons. Xiyu East Fort (西嶼東臺, completed 1889) is a smaller, roughly rectangular work of about 1.3 hectares with three gun emplacements. Both were built under Governor Liu Mingchuan after the Sino-French War of 1885, reinforced during Japanese colonial rule from 1896 as part of the Penghu Island Fortress (澎湖島要塞) system, and served through the Pacific War. Designated National Historic Monuments (國定古蹟).
Cihou Fort & Xiongzhen North Gate
旗后砲台・雄鎮北門
Twin Qing-dynasty coastal defense fortifications guarding the entrance to Kaohsiung Harbor, built in 1875 after the Mudan Incident under the direction of Imperial Commissioner Shen Baozhen. Cihou Fort (威震天南) commanded the high ground on Qihou Mountain while Xiongzhen North Gate (雄鎮北門) covered the low approach at Shaochuantou. During the Japanese colonial period, the original Armstrong cannons were removed; in WWII the Japanese military converted the fort into an anti-aircraft battery position and added concrete bunkers. Cihou Fort is a national monument of Taiwan (since 2019) and Xiongzhen North Gate a Kaohsiung municipal monument.
Shirakawa POW Camp (Taiwan Camp No. 4)
白河捕虜収容所（臺灣俘虜収容所第四分所）
Shirakawa POW Camp (Taiwan POW Camp No. 4) was a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp established in June 1943 at the former Neijiao Army Exercise Ground (內角陸軍演習所) in Baihe District, Tainan, colonial Taiwan. Known as the "officers' camp," it held 300–500 Allied prisoners — predominantly senior military officers and colonial officials from the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Australia — although the very highest-ranking captives held at Karenko, the group of Lt-Gen Arthur Percival (the British commander who surrendered Singapore) and governors such as Sir Shenton Thomas (Straits Settlements), are recorded as having been sent to Taihoku Camp No. 5 rather than to Shirakawa. Transferred primarily from Karenko (Hualien) Camp, prisoners were forced to perform agricultural labour on starvation rations. The camp served as a de facto hospital camp from late 1944 after most of the senior officers were transferred to Manchuria in the autumn of 1944. The camp operated until August 1945 and was liberated following Japan's surrender. In November 2013, the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society dedicated a memorial stone at the site entrance. Today the former camp grounds remain under military control as the Neijiao Military Camp (內角營區), now the Army Southern Region Testing and Evaluation Center.
Huwei Sugar Factory Dormitories
虎尾糖廠宿舎群
Japanese colonial-era sugar factory dormitory complex in Huwei, Yunlin County, Taiwan, whose buildings are said to have been used in the final months of World War II to lodge special attack (kamikaze) pilots from the nearby Huwei Naval Airfield, although the sources consulted do not document this. The Huwei Naval Air Group (虎尾海軍航空隊), established in May 1944 to train roughly 260 flight cadets, was dissolved in February 1945 due to fuel and materiel shortages; its aircraft were then transferred to the Chūsei-tai (忠誠隊) special attack squadron for suicide missions against American ships near Okinawa. The sugar factory's First Official Dormitory (第一公差宿舍, also called Taishunkan / 臺春館), built in 1916, and its surrounding Japanese-style residential quarter are the buildings associated with this account. The dormitory complex (reported as 11 to 12 surviving buildings) was designated a county-level historic monument in 2015.
Wushe Incident Memorial Park (Mona Rudao Memorial Park)
霧社事件紀念公園（莫那魯道紀念公園）
The Wushe Incident Memorial Park in Ren'ai Township, Nantou County, Taiwan, commemorates the 1930 Wushe Incident (霧社事件) — the largest armed uprising by indigenous Taiwanese against Japanese colonial rule. Led by Seediq chief Mona Rudao, warriors from six communities attacked a Japanese sports day gathering on 27 October 1930, killing 134 Japanese. The brutal suppression that followed claimed over 600 Seediq lives. Established in 1953, the park houses Mona Rudao's tomb (remains interred in 1973), the Anti-Japanese Monument, and a bronze group sculpture of Seediq warriors. The incident inspired the 2011 blockbuster film "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale."
Taichung Prefectural Hall
台中州庁
Baroque-Mansard government building designed by Moriyama Matsunosuke (森山松之助) and constructed 1913–1934 as the administrative headquarters of Taichū Prefecture (台中州) during Japanese colonial rule. Designated a national monument (國定古蹟) in 2019, the hall served as the wartime seat of the prefectural governor overseeing mobilization, rationing, and civil defense across present-day Taichung, Changhua, and Nantou. After 1945 it became the Taichung City Government office.
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.
Railway Department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan (Railway Department Park)
台湾総督府交通局鉄道部（鉄道部園区）
The Railway Department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan was the colonial administrative headquarters for railway transport across Taiwan from 1919 to 1945. Located adjacent to the Taipei North Gate (北門), the English half-timbered main building (brick below, timber above) was designed by architect Moriyama Matsunosuke and completed in two phases in 1919 and 1920, replacing the earlier Qing-dynasty Taipei Machinery Bureau on the same site. During the war years the department managed all military logistics rail movements across the island, coordinating troop transport, materiel shipments, and industrial freight for Japan's southern front operations. After 1945 the complex served as the headquarters of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) until 1990. Designated a National Monument in 2007, the six surviving structures — including the main hall, dining hall, octagonal lavatory building, power room, engineering office, and 1943 wartime command center — underwent meticulous restoration. The park reopened in July 2020 as a branch of the National Taiwan Museum, exhibiting Taiwan's railway heritage from the colonial era through the postwar period.
Former Taiwan Gokoku Shrine (now National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine)
台灣護國神社跡（現・國民革命忠烈祠）
Site of the Taiwan Gokoku Shrine (台灣護國神社), established in 1942 at Dazhi (大直) in Taipei, just east of the Taiwan Shrine's new precinct near Yuanshan (圓山), to enshrine the Taiwan-related war dead already enshrined at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine — those who died in Taiwan and people from or resident in Taiwan who died in Japan's service. Part of the nationwide gokoku jinja (護國神社) system created under rising wartime militarism to memorialize the war dead. After Japan's defeat, the ROC government converted the shrine in 1946 into the Taiwan Provincial Martyrs' Shrine. In 1969, under President Chiang Kai-shek's direction, the site was completely rebuilt in Chinese palatial style modeled after Beijing's Hall of Supreme Harmony, becoming the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine (國民革命忠烈祠), dedicated to roughly 400,000 ROC soldiers and civilians (published figures range from about 390,000 to over 400,000) who died in conflicts from the Xinhai Revolution through the Taiwan Strait crises.
Bank of Taiwan Head Office Building
臺灣銀行本店
The Bank of Taiwan Head Office Building (completed 1937) at No. 120, Section 1, Chongqing South Road, Taipei, was the financial nerve center of Japanese colonial Taiwan. Designed by architect Yoshitoki Nishimura in a neoclassical style with massive granite Corinthian columns, the three-story reinforced-concrete building replaced an earlier 1903 structure damaged by termites. As the sole issuer of Taiwanese yen banknotes from 1899, the Bank of Taiwan financed colonial industrial expansion, wartime military procurement, and trade networks spanning South China and Southeast Asia. The building sustained roof damage during Allied air raids on Taipei in 1945, was repaired postwar, and resumed operations on May 20, 1946 under ROC administration. Designated a Taipei Municipal Historic Site in 1998, it remains the active headquarters of the Bank of Taiwan.
Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau
台湾総督府専売局
The Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau (臺灣總督府專賣局), built 1912–1922 and designed by Matsunosuke Moriyama, was the administrative headquarters of Japan's colonial monopoly system in Taiwan. The Bureau controlled the production and sale of opium, camphor, salt, tobacco, alcohol, matches, petroleum, and measuring instruments — revenues that at their peak constituted about 40% of the colonial government's total income. The Renaissance-style red-brick building on Nanchang Road in Taipei survives today as the headquarters of the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, designated a National Monument in 1998.
Hsinchu Shrine Ruins
新竹神社跡
Hsinchu Shrine (新竹神社, Shinchiku Jinja) was the largest and highest-ranked Shinto shrine in colonial Shinchiku Prefecture, Taiwan. Completed in 1918 and elevated to Kokuhei Shosha (國幣小社) in 1942 — the first shrine in Taiwan to receive this national rank — it stood on the slopes of Niupushan (牛埔山) in northern Hsinchu City. After Japan's defeat the site passed to military use, and from 1992 to 2018 it housed a detention and processing centre for unauthorised entrants from mainland China (新竹靖廬). Today it is one of Taiwan's best-preserved Japanese shrine ruins, designated a Hsinchu City Monument in 2001, and a phased restoration project is under way.
Former Taiwan Army Headquarters
台湾軍司令部跡
The Taiwan Army Headquarters (台湾軍司令部) was the supreme military command of the Imperial Japanese Army on Taiwan, established in 1919, with its headquarters at Shoin-chō 3-chōme (now 172 Bo'ai Road, Zhongzheng District), Taipei. Originally commanding garrison forces on the island, it became the basis of the 10th Area Army (第十方面軍), formed on September 22, 1944, to prepare for the anticipated Allied invasion of Taiwan (Operation Causeway). General Rikichi Andō served as the last commander, simultaneously holding the post of Governor-General of Taiwan. The headquarters building, constructed around 1920, was among the buildings damaged in the U.S. Fifth Air Force's Taipei Air Raid of May 31, 1945. After Japan's surrender, Andō signed the instrument of surrender at the nearby Taipei Public Auditorium (now Zhongshan Hall) on October 25, 1945. The former headquarters building survives and is now used by the Ministry of National Defense's reserve command.
Shinchiku Prefecture Office (now Hsinchu City Government)
新竹州庁（現・新竹市政府）
The former Shinchiku Prefecture Office (新竹州廳) is a two-story reinforced-brick building, begun in 1925 and brought into use after its ridge-raising ceremony in November 1927 (1926 is often given as the completion date), at the administrative heart of Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Constructed during the Japanese colonial period as the seat of Shinchiku Prefecture — one of five prefectures (州) governing Taiwan from 1920 — the building is a landmark example of Japanese-Western hybrid (和洋混合) colonial architecture, combining a Western neoclassical body with an Eastern-style sloped tile roof. Its U-shaped plan features a prominent double-columned portico entrance flanked by twin towers, interior Roman-arched corridors, and balconies on three sides designed for Taiwan's subtropical climate. The portico was extended in 1932. During the Pacific War, the building served as the nerve centre for Shinchiku Prefecture's wartime mobilization, civil defence, and resource allocation across a vast jurisdiction encompassing modern-day Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Taoyuan City, and Miaoli County. In 1944–45 Hsinchu suffered repeated Allied bombing raids targeting its airfield and railway facilities; the Prefecture Office survived. After Japan's surrender on 15 August 1945, the building was handed over to the Republic of China administration on 25 October 1945 and has since served alternately as the Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City government offices, housing the city government continuously since the county government moved to Zhubei in 1989. Designated a provincial monument in 1998 and later reclassified as a National Monument (國定古蹟), the building continues to house city government functions; the nearby former Hsinchu City Hall (新竹市役所), a separate building, has housed the Hsinchu City Art Gallery (新竹市美術館) since 2007.
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.
Remains of Taipei Prison (Huaguang Community Ruins)
台北刑務所跡（華光社区遺構）
The Taipei Prison (臺北刑務所, Taihoku Keimushō) was a major colonial detention facility built by the Japanese Government-General of Taiwan around 1904, modeled on European radial prison designs. Located around present-day Jinshan South Road in Taipei, it served as the primary incarceration site for political prisoners throughout the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945). Following the 1923 "Police Incident" (治警事件), prominent anti-Japanese activists including Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), Lin Youchun (林幼春), Tsai Pei-huo (蔡培火), and Lai He (賴和) were imprisoned here. During WWII, the prison also held captured Allied airmen — on June 19, 1945, fourteen American airmen were executed there after a perfunctory trial, just 57 days before Japan's surrender. After the war, the prison grounds became government dormitories known as the Huaguang Community (華光社區). Sections of the original stone prison wall survive along Jinshan South Road: a north wall of about 90 meters, designated a Taipei City monument in 1998, and a south wall designated in 2013. The walls were constructed using stones recycled from the dismantled Qing Dynasty Taipei City Wall.
Former Tainan Shrine (now Tainan Art Museum Building 2)
台南神社跡（現・台南市美術館2館）
Tainan Shrine (台南神社, Tainan Jinja) was a major Shinto shrine built in 1920–1923 in Tainan, Taiwan, enshrining Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa who died during the 1895 Japanese invasion. Elevated to Kanpei Chūsha (官幣中社, mid-rank state shrine) in 1925, it was one of the most important colonial shrines in southern Taiwan. After Japan's defeat the shrine was converted into the Tainan Martyrs' Shrine (台南忠烈祠) in 1946; in 1969 the Martyrs' Shrine was relocated to its present South District location on Jiankang Road and the former shrine buildings were demolished.
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.
Taihoku Prisoner of War Camp No. 6
台北捕虜収容所第六分所
Taihoku Prisoner of War Camp No. 6, located in the Dazhi district of Taipei (then Taihoku), was one of the principal Allied POW camps in Japanese-occupied Taiwan (Formosa) during World War II. Operational from November 1942 to September 1945, the camp held approximately 500 prisoners at any given time — almost entirely British troops, initially of the Royal Artillery and the Indian 11th Division's signals unit, captured at the fall of Singapore and transported aboard the hellship England Maru. The 74 POWs who died in captivity were victims of malnutrition, tropical disease, and harsh forced labor including park and lake construction, farming, and work in bus and railway repair shops. In its final year the camp served as a transit hub for prisoners being shipped to Japan and Manchuria. The site is now occupied by the Republic of China Ministry of National Defense headquarters in Dazhi, where a memorial stele was erected in 2011 by the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.
Yuanlin (Inrin) POW Camp
台湾俘虜収容所員林分所
Allied prisoner-of-war camp operated by the Imperial Japanese Army in the town of Inrin (員林, present-day Yuanlin City), Changhua County (then Taichū Prefecture), Taiwan. The site actually comprised two distinct facilities: the Inrin Camp, opened on 1 July 1944 in an old hotel for approximately 100 sick POWs from the Taichū (Taichung) Camp, which had been evacuated after a typhoon flood; and a Temporary Camp, set up in a local school in November 1944 to house 382 American and British survivors of the hellship Hokusen Maru. The Inrin Camp closed on 5 March 1945, with the remaining 43 prisoners moved to Toroku Camp; the Temporary Camp operated until 16 January 1945 when POWs were shipped onward to Japan. No POW deaths were recorded at the Temporary Camp.
Hobe Fort (Huwei Fort / Tamsui Fort)
滬尾砲台（淡水砲台）
A late-Qing coastal defense fort in Tamsui, New Taipei, built in 1886 under Governor Liu Mingchuan after the Sino-French War. Featuring 4.3-metre-thick iron-cement walls, Armstrong and Krupp breechloaders, and the calligraphic gate inscription "北門鎖鑰" (Key to the Northern Gate), the fort never saw combat. After Japan took Taiwan in 1895, the Imperial Japanese Army removed all four cannons and converted the site into an artillery training ground. The fort remained under military control throughout the colonial period, preserving its structure. Designated a National Monument (國定古蹟) in 1985, it is today one of the best-preserved Qing-era forts in Taiwan.
Ciaotou Sugar Factory (Kio-a-thau Sugar Refinery)
橋仔頭製糖所（台湾製糖橋仔頭工場）
Taiwan's first modern mechanized sugar factory, established in 1901 by the Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company (台灣製糖株式會社) during Japanese colonial rule. Located in Ciaotou (then Kio-a-thau), Kaohsiung, it symbolized Japan's drive to industrialize Taiwan's sugar output for the empire. During WWII, the factory produced ethanol as a military fuel substitute, making it a strategic target for Allied bombing. Today the site is preserved as the Taiwan Sugar Museum, with 19 designated heritage structures including Japanese-era dormitories, a Dutch-colonial-style office, air-raid shelters, and a red-brick water tower.
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.
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.
Jinguashi Mine (New Taipei City Gold Museum)
金瓜石鉱山（黄金博物館）
The Jinguashi Mine (金瓜石鉱山, Kinkaseki kōzan) was one of the largest gold and copper mines in East Asia, located in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Placer gold was found in the Keelung River in 1890 and the Jinguashi ore body in 1893, during the late Qing dynasty, and under Japanese colonial rule (1895–1945) the mine came to be known as the foremost precious-metal mine in Asia and was Taiwan's leading copper producer. Operated successively by the Tanaka Group, Ushiroku Shintarō's Kinkaseki Mining Company (from 1925) and Nippon Mining Company (日本鉱業, from 1933), the mine's gold output peaked around 1938 at over 70,000 taels (roughly 2.6 tonnes) a year; copper output in 1936 is given as 7,350 tons or about 11,000 tons depending on the source. During WWII, the mine was designated a critical strategic resource; production was intensified using forced labour from Allied POWs held at the adjacent Kinkaseki POW Camp. US Navy wartime intelligence identified the Kinkaseki gold mines as among Imperial Japan's largest gold sources. Mining continued under the ROC government's Taiwan Metals Mining Company until closure in 1987. The site was transformed into the Gold Ecological Park (黃金博物園區) in November 2004, Taiwan's first ecological museum, now known as the New Taipei City Gold Museum.
Ershawan Battery (Tenable Gate of the Sea)
二沙湾砲台（海門天険）
A national historic monument in Keelung, Taiwan, originally built in 1840 during the Opium War by Qing official Yao Ying to repel British naval forces. Destroyed during the Sino-French War in 1884, the battery was rebuilt at its current hilltop location by Governor Liu Mingchuan between 1886 and 1889, incorporating German-engineered Armstrong breech-loading guns. Occupied by French forces (who renamed it Fort La Galissonnière) during the Keelung Campaign of 1884–1885, and briefly bombarded by five Japanese warships during the 1895 Battle of Keelung. Under Japanese colonial rule the fort lost its military significance and fell into disrepair. Designated a Class One National Historic Monument in 1983, the site preserves Qing-era stone gates, gun emplacements, ammunition depots, barracks, and wells.
Sheliao Island Battery Group (Heping Island / Peace Island)
社寮島砲台群（和平島）
A multi-layered coastal defense fortification complex on Heping Island (formerly Sheliao Island) at the entrance to Keelung Harbor in northern Taiwan. The site bears traces of four successive colonial powers — Spain (1626), the Dutch (1642), the Qing dynasty (1886–1891), and Imperial Japan (1901–1945). The extant East and West batteries were entirely rebuilt by the Imperial Japanese Army between 1901 and 1903 as part of the Keelung Fortress system in preparation for the Russo-Japanese War. Armed with 27 cm Canet-pattern (加式) guns, the batteries employed a "mountain-embracing" (抱山式) concealment design that hid gun positions from seaward observation. The batteries were registered as historic buildings in 2004 and upgraded to Keelung municipal monuments in 2006.
Taiwan Governor-General High Court (Judicial Building)
台湾総督府高等法院
The highest court of colonial Taiwan under Japanese rule, housed in the landmark 1934 Judicial Building in Taipei. After Japan's surrender, the building served as a venue for war crimes tribunals and later became the seat of the Republic of China's Judicial Yuan.
National Taiwan Museum (Former Taiwan Governor-General Museum)
国立台湾博物館（旧台湾総督府博物館）
Taiwan's oldest museum, founded in 1908 by the Japanese colonial government as the Taiwan Governor-General's Museum (臺灣總督府民政部殖產局附屬博物館) to commemorate the completion of the North-South Railway. The current Renaissance-style building, designed by architects Nomura Ichirō and Araki Eiichi, was completed in 1915 within Taihoku New Park (now 228 Peace Park). It served as the colony's foremost cultural and scientific institution throughout the Japanese era.
Taiwan Cultural Association Site (Da-An Hospital / Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Park)
台湾文化協会跡（大安医院・蔣渭水記念公園）
Site of the Taiwan Cultural Association (台灣文化協會), the most important non-violent anti-Japanese resistance organization in colonial Taiwan, founded on 17 October 1921 by physician-activist Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水, 1890–1931) at Blessed Imelda's School (靜修女中) in Dadaocheng, Taipei. The association's headquarters and Taipei branch were established at Chiang's Da-An Hospital (大安醫院) on Taiping Street (太平町, today's Yanping North Road Section 2). Now commemorated by the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Park (蔣渭水紀念公園) in Datong District.
Takao Port Station (Hamasen Railway Cultural Park)
高雄港驛（ハマセン鉄道文化園区）
Originally Takao Station (打狗驛), Kaohsiung's first railway station built in 1900 during Japanese colonial rule. It served as a critical rail-to-port logistics hub connecting Taiwan's longitudinal railway to Kaohsiung Harbor for military and industrial material transport. Renamed Kaohsiung Port Station (高雄港驛) in 1941 when it became a dedicated freight terminal. Largely destroyed by US air raids late in the war, rebuilt in 1947, and continued operating until 2008. Now preserved as the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park and Takao Railway Museum.
Taihoku Imperial University (now National Taiwan University)
台北帝国大学（現・国立台湾大学）
Taihoku Imperial University (台北帝国大学), established on March 16, 1928, was the seventh of Japan's nine imperial universities and the highest institution of learning in colonial Taiwan. Located in Taihoku (Taipei) with faculties of Literature & Politics, Science & Agriculture, Medicine (1936), and Engineering (1943), it served as the academic center for Japan's "southward advance" (南進) policy. Wartime research institutes — the Tropical Medicine Research Institute (1939), the Southern Humanities Research Institute (1943), and the Southern Resources Science Research Institute (1943) — conducted strategic studies on tropical diseases, Southeast Asian resources, and ethnography to support the empire's expansion into the South Seas. Students were mobilized under the 1943 gakuto shutsujin (学徒出陣) conscription. The university hospital was damaged during the May 31, 1945 Taipei Air Raid. After Japan's surrender, the university was renamed National Taiwan University (國立臺灣大學) in November 1945 under ROC administration.
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.
Huwei Airfield
虎尾飛行場
A major Imperial Japanese Navy airfield in Huwei, Yunlin County, Taiwan, established in 1943-1944 for pilot training. After the training unit was disbanded in February 1945 the field was turned over to operational units and its abandoned trainers were passed to the Taiwan-based special attack unit Chūsei-tai; the nearby Huwei Sugar Factory produced anhydrous alcohol for fuel.
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.
Taipei Post Office (Beimen Post Office)
台北郵便局（現・北門郵局）
The Taipei Post Office, completed in 1930 during Japanese colonial rule, served as Taiwan's largest postal and telecommunications hub. Designed by Governor-General's Office architect Kuriyama Shunichi in reinforced concrete with eclectic Western-classical styling, the building housed both postal services and telegraph/telephone operations under the Taiwan Governor-General's Communications Bureau (臺灣總督府逓信部). During the Pacific War it functioned as a critical node in Japan's wartime communications control network across Taiwan, managing censorship of mail, military postal routing, and telegraph traffic. The building survived the devastating Taipei Air Raid of May 31, 1945 largely intact and stands today beside the Qing-era North Gate (承恩門, Beimen) as a designated municipal historic site.
Su'ao Port
蘇澳港
A strategic natural deep-water harbor on Taiwan's northeast coast, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy as a secondary naval facility during WWII. The port area included fuel depots, observation stations, and anti-aircraft positions, and was a key defensive point against anticipated Allied landings in the Yilan Plain.
Kagi Station (Chiayi Railway Station)
嘉義驛（かぎえき）
A major railway station in Kagi (Chiayi), Taiwan, originally opened in 1902 and rebuilt in 1933 as one of Taiwan's early reinforced-concrete stations. Serving as the gateway to the Alishan Forest Railway and the junction of three railway systems (TRA mainline, sugar railway, and forest railway), it was a critical military transport node during WWII. Allied bombing on April 3 and May 1, 1945 severely damaged the rail yard and surrounding district. The station also witnessed the public execution of four Chiayi city councilors during the February 28 Incident (1947). The 1933 building survives today as a designated cultural heritage site.
Taiwan Governor-General Medical School (now NTU College of Medicine / NTUH Old Building)
台湾総督府医学校（現・国立台湾大学医学院／台大病院旧館）
Founded in 1899 as the first modern medical school in Taiwan under the Japanese colonial government, the Taiwan Governor-General Medical School (台灣總督府醫學校) became a leading centre for tropical medicine research. The iconic Renaissance-style red-brick hospital building, designed by architect Juro Kondoh (近藤十郎), was built from 1912 and completed in 1921, and served as the affiliated teaching hospital. During the colonial era the institution trained generations of Taiwanese physicians — including Tu Tsung-ming (杜聰明), Taiwan's first medical doctorate holder — and conducted pioneering research on malaria, plague, scrub typhus, and other tropical diseases. Renamed Taihoku Medical College in 1922, it was attached to Taihoku Imperial University in 1936 as the affiliated Medical Specialised Division (附屬醫學專門部) when the university opened its Faculty of Medicine. After Japan's defeat in 1945, it became the College of Medicine of National Taiwan University. The old hospital building (台大醫院舊館) is now a Taipei municipal historic monument in Zhongzheng District, Taipei.
Keelung Shipyard (Taiwan Dock Co.)
基隆船渠（台湾船渠株式会社）
Founded in 1919 as Keelung Dock Co. (基隆船渠株式會社) by industrialist Kimura Kyūtarō, then reorganized in 1937 as Taiwan Dock Co. (臺灣船渠株式會社) with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and major Japanese capital groups. Located on Sheliao Island (社寮島, now Heping Island) in Keelung, it was colonial Taiwan's foremost modern shipbuilding and ship-repair facility. During the Pacific War, the yard served as a critical repair depot for Imperial Japanese Navy warships operating in the South Seas theater. Allied air raids in 1945 heavily damaged the facility and surrounding port.
Ensuiko Sugar Manufacturing Co. — Xinying Sugar Factory
塩水港製糖株式会社・新営製糖所
Headquarters of the Ensuiko Sugar Manufacturing Company (鹽水港製糖株式會社), one of the 'Big Four' Japanese sugar companies in colonial Taiwan. Established in 1907 at Xinying (新營), Tainan Prefecture, the factory grew into the nerve center of an empire that operated four sugar mills, three wartime alcohol distilleries, and two refineries in the Japanese home islands. During the Pacific War, its affiliated alcohol plants produced industrial ethanol from sugarcane molasses to supplement Japan's critical fuel shortages. Heavily bombed by Allied air raids late in the war, the factory was so badly damaged that cane had to be diverted to the neighboring Kishiuchi (岸內) mill. Taken over by Taiwan Sugar Corporation in 1946. The original 1908 European-style headquarters building (原鹽水港製糖株式會社總社辦公室) survives as a Tainan City Designated Monument.
Former IJA Taiwan Infantry 2nd Regiment Barracks
原日軍臺灣歩兵第二聯隊営舎
The former barracks of the Imperial Japanese Army Taiwan Infantry 2nd Regiment (臺灣步兵第二聯隊), located on what is now the Guangfu Campus of National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan's East District. Established in 1907 (Meiji 40) as one of only two infantry regiments garrisoned in Taiwan — both uniquely bearing the prefix "Taiwan" (臺灣) in their designation — the 2nd Regiment was responsible for defending all of southern Taiwan south of the Zhuoshui River, with its headquarters and main barracks in Tainan's Asahi-chō (旭町). The permanent barracks were constructed in two phases: the first phase (1902–1904) established basic facilities, while the second phase (1910–1912) produced the ornate red-brick buildings with Roman arched colonnades that survive today as National Monuments. During WWII, as the Taiwan Army (臺灣軍) was reorganized into the 10th Area Army in 1944 for the decisive defense of Taiwan against anticipated Allied invasion, the barracks — whose regiment had left with the 48th Division in 1940–41 — continued in use as an army base in the south. After Japan's surrender in August 1945, the compound was taken over by ROC Army units (the 2nd, 8th, and 10th Armies) and renamed Guangfu Camp (光復營區). In 1966, the site was transferred to NCKU, becoming the Guangfu Campus. Three surviving barracks buildings — now housing the Department of History, the Department of Industrial Design (Dacheng Hall), and the Institute of Art Studies (Lixian Building) — were designated National Monuments on 10 November 2003, representing the most complete surviving Japanese-era permanent military barracks in Taiwan.
Japan Aluminum Co. Kaohsiung Plant (Nippon Aluminium Takao Works)
日本アルミニウム株式会社高雄工場
Colonial Taiwan's first and principal aluminum smelter, established in 1935 as the Takao Works of Nippon Aluminium Co., Ltd. (日本アルミニウム株式会社) by a consortium including Furukawa Electric, Tokai Electrode, and Taisei Chemical. The plant began producing aluminum ingots in 1936 (November, according to Japanese sources), powered by cheap hydroelectricity from the Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) power system. It refined bauxite imported from Southeast Asia into aircraft-grade aluminum essential for Japan's wartime aviation industry. Heavily damaged by USAAF bombing in 1944–1945, the factory was taken over by the ROC government postwar and reorganized as Taiwan Aluminum Corporation (台灣鋁業公司). The original factory site in Qianzhen District has been redeveloped as MLD台鋁生活商場, preserving the iconic Y-shaped steel beam structure from the 1970s-era expansion.
Kensei Elementary School (postwar Taipei City Hall, now MOCA Taipei)
建成小学校（戦後の台北市政府、現・台北当代芸術館）
This building — the post-war Taipei City Government office, not the Japanese-era Taihoku City Office (台北市役所), which stood on the site of today's Executive Yuan — was originally constructed in 1921 as the Kensei Elementary School (建成小學校) for Japanese children during the colonial period. After Japan's surrender in 1945, it was converted into the Taipei City Government headquarters, serving as the administrative centre of the city for nearly five decades until 1994. Designated a municipal historic site in 1996, the building was transformed into the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (MOCA Taipei), which opened in May 2001 as the first museum in Taiwan dedicated exclusively to contemporary art.
Taipei Public Hall (Zhongshan Hall)
台北公会堂
Taipei Public Hall (台北公会堂, Taihoku Kōkaidō), completed in 1936, was the largest public assembly hall in colonial Taiwan. On 25 October 1945, the Japanese surrender ceremony for Taiwan took place on its second floor, where Governor-General Andō Rikichi formally surrendered to General Chen Yi, marking the end of fifty years of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan. Renamed Zhongshan Hall (中山堂) after the war, it is now designated a National Historic Site and serves as a civic cultural centre in Taipei.
Taipei Broadcasting Bureau (Taihoku Hōsōkyoku)
台北放送局（JFAK）
The Taipei Broadcasting Bureau (台北放送局, call sign JFAK) was the central radio broadcasting station of colonial Taiwan; it began experimental broadcasts in 1928, and its surviving performance hall was built by the Governor-General's Office in 1930. On August 15, 1945, it relayed the Emperor's Gyokuon-hōsō surrender broadcast to the people of Taiwan, marking the end of Japanese rule. In 1947, the station was seized by protesters during the 228 Incident to broadcast calls for resistance. Since 1997 the building has served as the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum.
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 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.
Taiwan Electric Power Company Headquarters
臺灣電力株式會社本社
Headquarters of the Taiwan Electric Power Company (台灣電力株式會社), established in 1919 as a semi-governmental enterprise during the Japanese colonial period. Located behind the Governor-General's Office in Taipei, the company managed all electricity generation and distribution across Taiwan, including the landmark Sun Moon Lake hydroelectric project, providing critical power for wartime industrial production. The headquarters was destroyed by American bombing in 1945; it is listed among the buildings hit in the Taipei Air Raid of May 31.
Japan Aluminum Hualien Port Factory
日本アルミニウム花蓮港工場
A wartime aluminum smelting factory established in Hualien, Taiwan by Nippon Aluminium Co. (日本アルミニウム株式会社) in the late 1930s. Powered by hydroelectric stations on the Mugua River (木瓜溪), later joined by the Liwu River (立霧溪) station, the plant produced aluminum ingots for Imperial Japan's military aircraft production until it was destroyed by American air raids in 1945.
Taiwan Shrine Sandō (Chokushi Road)
臺灣神社參道（勅使街道）
The Taiwan Shrine Sandō was the grand ceremonial approach road leading from central Taihoku (Taipei) to the Taiwan Grand Shrine on Jiantan Mountain beside Maruyama. Originally constructed in 1901 and known as Chokushi Kaidō (Imperial Envoy's Road), the route was significantly widened in the 1930s into a broad tree-lined boulevard, reported as about 40 meters wide, to project Japanese imperial authority. Lined with stone lanterns, torii gates, and culminating at the Meiji Bridge over the Keelung River, it served as the sacred axis connecting the colonial capital to its highest-ranking Shinto shrine. After Japan's defeat, the road was renamed in 1946 Zhongshan North Road (中山北路) after Sun Yat-sen, and it remains one of Taipei's most important north-south thoroughfares today.
Taihoku Imperial University Library (now NTU Gallery of History)
台北帝国大学附属図書館（現・国立台湾大学校史館）
The Taihoku Imperial University Library (台北帝国大学附属図書館) was built in 1929–30 as the main library of Japan's seventh imperial university in colonial Taiwan. Designed in a Western eclectic style with distinctive arched windows, the two-story reinforced concrete building served as the intellectual heart of the university, housing academic collections that by 1944 ranked third among all nine imperial universities. The library supported the university's strategic "southward advance" research on tropical medicine, Southeast Asian resources, and colonial studies. After the war, it continued as the National Taiwan University Main Library until 1998; since 2005 it has housed the Gallery of NTU History (臺大校史館), preserving artifacts and documents from the colonial and postwar eras.
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.
Former Manchukuo Embassy Site (Moto-Azabu, Tokyo)
旧満洲国大使館跡（東京都港区元麻布）
The former Manchukuo Embassy in Tokyo was located at the present-day site of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Moto-Azabu, Minato-ku. The building, originally designed by architect Antonin Raymond in 1922 as the residence of Viscount Goto Shinpei (a former Foreign Minister and Mayor of Tokyo), was converted into the Manchukuo Embassy in 1932 when Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo in northeast China. The embassy represented the diplomatic facade of Japan's continental expansion until the building was destroyed in the devastating Tokyo air raid of May 25, 1945. After the war, the site was repurposed as the Republic of China embassy and later became the embassy of the People's Republic of China, which occupies the location to this day.
Former Tainan Waterworks
旧台南水道
The Former Tainan Waterworks is a colonial-era water supply facility in Shanshang District, Tainan, built between 1912 and 1922 under the direction of Japanese engineer Hamano Yashirō. Designated a National Historic Monument, it is one of Taiwan's best-preserved examples of Japanese colonial civil infrastructure and now operates as the Tainan Shan-Shang Garden and Old Waterworks Museum.
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.
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.
Taipei Water Source Site (Museum of Drinking Water)
台北水道水源地
A colonial-era Baroque-style water purification plant completed in 1908 during Japanese rule of Taiwan. Designed based on recommendations by British sanitary engineer William K. Burton and built by Japanese engineer Hamano Yajiro, it modernized Taipei's water supply as critical public health infrastructure. Now preserved as the Museum of Drinking Water, it is one of the finest architectural legacies of the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan.
Taiwan Governor-General Central Research Institute
台湾総督府中央研究所
The Central Research Institute of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office (台湾総督府中央研究所) was established in 1921 by merging earlier research bodies into a unified institution in Taipei. It conducted comprehensive research across agriculture, forestry, industry, and tropical hygiene — fields directly supporting colonial resource exploitation and wartime logistics. The institute was dissolved in 1939 and split into four successor organizations. Its original French Renaissance-style building (built 1907–1909) was damaged during WWII bombing and later demolished in stages (1971 and 1996).
Taihoku Higher School (now National Taiwan Normal University)
台湾総督府台北高等学校
Taihoku Higher School (台北高等学校) was the most elite preparatory institution in colonial Taiwan, established in 1922 by the Government-General of Taiwan. As the only higher school (高等学校) on the island, it was, until a university preparatory course opened in 1941, the only route on the island into the imperial universities, most notably Taihoku Imperial University. Admission was highly competitive and Taiwanese students were a small minority; the school educated future leaders including Lee Teng-hui, who later became President of the Republic of China. During the final years of the war, students were mobilized for the war effort. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the institution was reorganized and its campus became the foundation of what is now National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), whose heritage buildings from the Japanese colonial era are designated historic sites by Taipei City.
Taiwan Governor-General Weather Observatory
臺灣總督府氣象臺
Established in 1896 as the Taihoku (Taipei) Observatory during Japanese colonial rule and upgraded in 1938, the Taiwan Governor-General Weather Observatory was the central meteorological institution for the island, providing critical typhoon warnings, aviation weather support, and military meteorological intelligence during WWII. The site continues as the headquarters of the Central Weather Administration (formerly Central Weather Bureau) in Taipei.
Jiadong Shrine Ruins
佳冬神社跡
Jiadong Shrine (佳冬神社, Katō Jinja) was a Shinto shrine built in 1936 in Jiadong Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan, under Japan's "one village, one shrine" policy. Serving both the local community and soldiers stationed at the adjacent Jiadong Army Airfield, it was one of southern Taiwan's most complete shrine complexes, stretching 140 meters from its first torii gate to the main hall. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the shrine was abolished (its demolition is dated to 1946 in some accounts) and its buildings gradually disappeared, but significant remnants — including the first torii, one pillar of the second, a sacred bridge, and stone lantern bases — survive today. Designated a Pingtung County Historical Building in 2012, it is one of Taiwan's few well-preserved Japanese shrine ruins.
Beitou Public Bathhouse (Beitou Hot Spring Museum)
北投温泉公共浴場（北投温泉博物館）
The Beitou Hot Spring Museum, originally built in 1913 as the Hokutō Public Bathhouse — described as the largest and most lavish public bathhouse of its day, and often called the largest in East Asia — served multiple roles during the Japanese colonial era in Taiwan. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), the Imperial Japanese Army established a convalescent hospital in Beitou for wounded soldiers, and throughout the colonial period the hot spring district functioned as a rest and recuperation area for military personnel, government officials, and elites. During WWII, inns in Beitou are said to have hosted kamikaze pilots for their final meals, and wounded soldiers were treated in the district. Some accounts also associate the area with wartime comfort stations (慰安所). After decades of neglect following Japan's withdrawal in 1945, the bathhouse was restored and reopened as a museum in 1998.
Qishan Sugar Factory & Railway Station
旗山製糖所（旗山驛）
Former sugar factory and narrow-gauge railway station in Qishan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, built during the Japanese colonial period. Established in 1909 as the Qiwei Sugar Manufacturing Plant by the Takasago Sugar Company, the factory became a key node in southern Taiwan's extensive sugar railway network. During World War II, sugar production was intensified to supply alcohol fuel for the Japanese military, making the factory a potential industrial target; it is reported to have been damaged by Allied bombing. The distinctive octagonal-roofed Qishan Station (built 1913-1915), blending Tudor and Japanese architectural styles, is the best-known surviving station building of the Qiwei Line and is now preserved as a designated historic building and the Sugar Railway Story Hall museum.
Old Kaohsiung Station Building
高雄驛（旧駅舎）
The Old Kaohsiung Station, completed in 1941 by Shimizu Corporation in the Imperial Crown Style (帝冠様式), is one of the finest examples of Japanese colonial railway architecture in Taiwan. During WWII it served as a critical military transportation hub for southern Taiwan, facilitating troop and supply movements for the Japanese Imperial forces. The 2,500-tonne building was moved 82.6 meters in 2002 to accommodate railway underground construction, then returned to its original location in 2021 as the centerpiece of the new Kaohsiung Main Station complex.
Taiwan Development Company Headquarters Site
台湾拓殖株式会社本社跡
Former headquarters of the Taiwan Development Company (Taiwan Takushoku Kabushiki Kaisha), a major Japanese "national policy company" (kokusaku kaisha) established in 1936 to direct colonial resource exploitation across Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Located in the Sakaemachi (榮町) commercial district of Taipei, the company controlled mining, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and industrial development, playing a central role in wartime resource mobilization before it was closed down after the war and formally dissolved in 1947.
Taiwan Fruit Company (Banana Pier, Kaohsiung)
臺灣青果株式會社
The Taiwan Fruit Company (臺灣青果株式會社) was a Japanese colonial-era monopoly enterprise that controlled banana exports from Taiwan to Japan. Established in 1924 under the auspices of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, the company operated from facilities near Kaohsiung Port, where bananas — Taiwan's second-largest export commodity after sugar — were inspected, packed, and shipped to Japanese markets. The Banana Pier warehouse (香蕉棚) at Pier No. 3 of Kaohsiung Port, however, is a post-war structure built in 1963 for the revived banana export trade; it is a registered historic building of Kaohsiung City, not a surviving facility of the colonial company.
Xiyu Ammunition Depot (Penghu)
西嶼弾薬本庫
A rare early Japanese colonial-era underground ammunition depot complex in Nei'an Village, Xiyu Township, Penghu County, Taiwan. Built in 1902 as part of the Penghu Island Fortress system, the facility comprises cavern-style and above-ground cooling magazines lined with copper sheeting for electromagnetic shielding. Designated a national historic site in 2024, the depot opened to the public as a military culture park in 2021.
Tongxiao Shrine
通霄神社
Tongxiao Shrine is a well-preserved Japanese colonial-era Shinto shrine in Tongxiao Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan, built in 1937 on Tiger Head Mountain. One of the few surviving shrine complexes in Taiwan, it retains its worship hall, stone lanterns, and torii base, and was converted into a martyrs' shrine after Japan's surrender in 1945.
Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park (Morisaka)
林田山林場（森坂）
A major Japanese colonial-era logging camp and sawmill in eastern Taiwan, known as Morisaka (森坂) during the Japanese period. Established in 1918 by the Hualien Harbor Timber Company, the site expanded significantly in 1939 under Taiwan Xingye Company to supply timber for wartime military construction. Its well-preserved Japanese-style dormitory village and narrow-gauge forestry railway make it one of the most complete surviving logging settlements in Taiwan, now designated a historical village by Hualien County.
Yuanshan Water Shrine
圓山水神社
The Yuanshan Water Shrine (Maruyama Suijinja) is a rare, well-preserved Japanese Shinto shrine ruin in Taipei, built in 1938 (Shōwa 13) beside the Yuanshan Reservoir to honor workers who died during the construction of the Grass Mountain Waterworks (Sōzan Suidō), Taipei's second modern water supply system. The site retains stone lanterns (tōrō), guardian lion-dogs (komainu), a purification basin (chōzuya) and the shrine-name stele; the original worship hall has not survived. Constructed through donations from employees of the Taipei Waterworks Department, it served as both a memorial to the fallen engineers and laborers and a spiritual guardian of the water source. The shrine and the broader Grass Mountain Waterworks were designated a Taipei Municipal Historic Site in 2004.
Taoyuan Shrine (Taoyuan Martyrs' Shrine)
桃園神社
The Taoyuan Shrine (桃園神社), built in 1938 during the Japanese colonial period, is the best-preserved Japanese Shinto shrine remaining in Taiwan. Originally constructed as part of the Kōminka movement to promote Japanese identity among Taiwanese, the shrine was converted into the Taoyuan Martyrs' Shrine (忠烈祠) after World War II. Unlike most Japanese shrines in Taiwan that were demolished after 1945, the Taoyuan Shrine survived due to lack of funds for demolition and was designated a historic monument in 1994.
Taihoku Station (Third-Generation Building)
台北驛（第三代駅舎）
The third-generation Taipei Station, completed in 1940 and in service by 1941 in modernist style, was the principal railway station in colonial Taiwan and a critical military transportation hub during WWII. It was demolished in 1986.
Western Trunk Line Coastal Section (Dachia–Changhua)
縦貫線海線（台中海線・大甲—彰化）
The Coastal Line (海線) of Taiwan's Western Trunk Railway, completed in 1922, was built between Zhunan and Changhua along the island's western seaboard as a strategic alternative to the congested Mountain Line (山線). Designed for military transport redundancy and industrial freight capacity, it became essential wartime infrastructure ensuring uninterrupted north-south logistics across Taiwan.
Songshan Tobacco Factory (Songshan Cultural and Creative Park)
松山煙草工場
The Songshan Tobacco Factory was built in 1937 as the Matsuyama Tobacco Plant of the Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau, and is described as Taiwan's first modern specialised cigarette factory. During WWII, the factory produced cigarettes for both military and civilian consumption across the Japanese Empire. Featuring outstanding modernist industrial architecture designed by Japanese planners, the factory employed about 1,200 workers when production began in 1939. After ceasing operations in 1998, the complex was designated a municipal historic site in 2001 and reopened in 2011 as the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.
Yuli Shrine Ruins
玉里社
Yuli Shrine (Tamasato-sha) is one of the best-preserved Shinto shrine ruins in Hualien County, eastern Taiwan. Built in 1928 during the Japanese colonial period, the shrine served as a centre of Shinto worship in the southern Hualien region. After Japan's withdrawal from Taiwan in 1945, the main hall was demolished, but two torii gates, 17 stone lanterns, and the sandō (approach path) survive intact, earning county-level historic site designation in 2008.
Former Tainan Butokuden (Martial Arts Hall)
台南武徳殿
The Former Tainan Butokuden (原臺南武德殿), completed in 1936, is one of the largest surviving martial arts training halls (武德殿) built by the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai in colonial Taiwan. Located adjacent to the Confucius Temple in Tainan's West Central District, this reinforced concrete structure blends traditional Japanese shrine architecture with modern construction techniques. Designed by the Tainan Prefectural Government's Civil Engineering Division, it served as the regional center for kendo and judo training, promoting bushido spirit and militaristic education among Japanese colonists and Taiwanese subjects. The building is reported to have been damaged during American air raids in the closing stages of World War II but survived. Designated a Tainan municipal historic site in 1998, it now serves as the auditorium for Zhongyi Elementary School and stands as one of the finest examples of Butokuden architecture in Taiwan.
Taipei Sake Factory (Huashan 1914 Creative Park)
台北酒工場（専売局台北酒工場）
Established in 1914 as a private sake brewery by Nihon Hōjō Kabushiki Kaisha, the Taipei Sake Factory was taken over by the Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau in 1922 and became one of the largest alcohol production facilities in colonial Taiwan. During WWII, the factory produced industrial alcohol for military use alongside sake and wines. After the war, it continued as a state-run winery until 1987. Now preserved as Huashan 1914 Creative Park, it is one of Taipei's most important cultural heritage sites and creative venues.
Kaohsiung Butokuden (Martial Arts Hall)
高雄武徳殿
The Kaohsiung Butokuden, completed in 1924, is the highest-ranking and earliest-built martial arts training hall (武德殿) among all surviving butokuden in Taiwan. Originally named Shinbukan (振武館), it served as the headquarters of the Takao Prefecture branch of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, where police officers, civil servants, and students practiced kendo, judo, and other martial arts as part of Japan's bushido spirit education and wartime militarism programs.
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.
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.
Taichung Prefectural Taichung First Middle School
台中州立台中第一中学校
Founded on May 1, 1915 as the first middle school in Taiwan established through Taiwanese initiative, the Taichung First Middle School (now Taichung First Senior High School) was created after central Taiwan gentry — led by Lin Xiantang (林獻堂), Lin Lietang (林烈堂), and others — petitioned the Japanese colonial government and raised over 240,000 yen to fund a school for Taiwanese students who were excluded from Japanese-only secondary institutions. The school's founding monument declares: "We Taiwanese people initially had no middle school; it is self-created here." During the kōminka (皇民化) period from 1937 onward, the school was subject to intensified Japanization policies, and in the final years of WWII students were mobilized for the war effort. The school remains active today as Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School, with the original lecture hall preserved as a registered historical building.
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.
Wushe Public School Site
霧社公学校跡
The site of the former Wushe (Musha) Public School in Ren'ai Township, Nantou County, where the Wushe Incident — the largest armed anti-Japanese colonial uprising in Taiwan — began on October 27, 1930. Seediq warriors led by Chief Mona Rudao attacked during a Japanese athletics day ceremony, killing 134 Japanese nationals in the initial assault.
Beitou Museum (Kazan Ryokan)
佳山旅館（北投文物館）
Originally built in 1921 as the Kazan Ryokan, a premier Japanese hot-spring inn in colonial Taiwan, this building is said to have served as a Japanese military officers' club during WWII and to have hosted kamikaze pilots for their final meals before missions. Now the Beitou Museum, it is one of Taiwan's finest preserved two-story wooden Japanese structures and a designated historic monument.
Qidong Street Japanese Official Residences
幸町職務官舎群（齊東街日式宿舎）
A cluster of preserved Japanese colonial-era official residences along Qidong Street in Taipei's Zhongzheng District, originally built in the 1920s-1940s as the Saiwaichō (幸町) civil servant housing group for high-ranking colonial officials. Among the first batch of Japanese dormitory groups in Taiwan to receive area-wide preservation under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, the site is regarded as Taipei's best-preserved quarter of historic buildings, housing the Taiwan Literature Base and the Taipei Qin Hall.
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.
Basianshan Forest Station
八仙山林場
One of Taiwan's Three Great Forest Areas (三大林場) during the Japanese colonial period, alongside Alishan and Taipingshan. Operated from 1915 to 1963 in Heping District, Taichung, the station extracted massive quantities of valuable Taiwanese cypress (hinoki) and camphor timber through an extensive 99-kilometer railway network. During WWII, operations were taken over by the Taiwan Development Corporation (台灣拓殖株式會社) and timber output peaked at 43,000 cubic meters in 1943 to meet wartime military and industrial demands. Now preserved as the Basianshan National Forest Recreation Area.
Taipingshan Forest Station
太平山林場
One of Taiwan's "Three Great Forest Areas" (三大林場) during the Japanese colonial period, Taipingshan Forest Station in Yilan County operated from 1914 to 1982, producing approximately 990,000 cubic meters of timber. The station pioneered aerial cableway logging technology in Taiwan and built an extensive 68-kilometer forest railway network. During wartime, it supplied critical timber resources for military and industrial construction across the Japanese Empire.
Governor-General's Residence (Taipei Guest House)
台湾総督官邸（台北賓館）
Built in 1901 as the official residence of the Governor-General of Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule, this Baroque-style mansion served as the venue for official receptions and state ceremonies. After WWII, the Treaty of Taipei was signed here in 1952, and it is now a designated national historic monument known as the Taipei Guest House.
Taiwan Education Association Hall (228 National Memorial Museum)
台湾教育会館
Built in 1931 as the Taiwan Education Association Hall during the Japanese colonial period, this modernist building served as the center for colonial education policy and wartime mobilization. After WWII, it housed the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council and became an important site related to the February 28 Incident (1947). Now designated a historic site, it operates as the National 228 Memorial Museum.
Shengxing Station & Old Mountain Line Railway
勝興駅・旧山線鉄道（十六份驛）
The highest point (402.326m elevation) on the original Taiwan trunk railway mountain line, opened in 1907 during the Japanese colonial period. This wooden station in Sanyi Township, Miaoli County, served as strategic railway infrastructure connecting north and south Taiwan. The Old Mountain Line, completed in 1908, was an engineering marvel featuring nine tunnels, three bridges, and the steepest gradients on the western trunk line. Regular service ceased in 1998 when a new route opened; the station is now a designated historic site and popular heritage tourism destination.
Kenkou Shrine
建功神社
Kenkou Shrine (建功神社) was a unique Shinto shrine in Taipei, established in 1928 to honor individuals who contributed to Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan. Unlike most wartime shrines that solely commemorated war dead, Kenkou Shrine enshrined all those who had died in battle, on duty or in disasters in Taiwan since 1895 — soldiers, administrators, educators, police officers and others, Japanese and Taiwanese alike — as having "built merit" (建功) for the empire. Designed by prominent colonial architect Ide Kaoru, the shrine featured an unprecedented hybrid architectural style combining Japanese, Chinese, and Western elements, most notably a striking dome atop the main hall — a radical departure from traditional shrine architecture. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the shrine was converted into the National Central Library in the 1950s, and the site became part of the Nanhai Academy (南海學園) cultural complex. Today the former shrine building houses the National Taiwan Arts Education Center, and surviving stone balustrades (玉垣) from the original shrine can still be seen on the grounds.
Former Tainan Prison Site
台南刑務所跡
Tainan Prison (台南刑務所) was a major colonial-era correctional facility built in 1904 during the Japanese rule of Taiwan, designed by architect Yamashita Keijiro. Located between the old Xiaonanmen and Xiaoximen gates of Tainan city, it was the second-largest prison in colonial Taiwan after Taihoku Prison, featuring a radial floor plan with five male cell wings and separate women's quarters. The prison was used to incarcerate political prisoners — including those arrested during the 1915 Tapani Incident — as well as common criminals. Inmates were subjected to forced labor in workshops surrounding the cell blocks. In the mid-1980s prison operations relocated to a new facility in Guiren District, and the main compound was demolished from September 1986. Several auxiliary structures survive as designated cultural heritage sites, including the former martial arts hall (要道館), official residences, the prison director's quarters, and dormitory remains, some now repurposed as the Blueprint Cultural and Creative Park (藍曬圖文創園區) near the Tainan Art Museum.
Jingtong Station & Shidi Coal Mine
菁桐駅・石底炭鉱
Terminal station of the Pingxi Line, a narrow-gauge coal mining railway in northeast Taiwan built during the Japanese colonial period. Jingtong Station was constructed in 1929 to serve the Shidi Coal Mine (石底炭鉱), one of Taiwan's most productive coal mining operations. The original wooden station building, one of the few surviving Japanese-era railway stations in Taiwan, was designated a monument (古蹟) in 2003. Coal extracted from these mines was a critical wartime energy resource for the Japanese Empire.
Jiaobanshan Resort (Kakaban-san Lodge)
角板山賓館
Jiaobanshan Resort is a historic mountain retreat in Fuxing District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan. The original Kakaban-san Guest House was completed in 1914 of hinoki cypress and was later prepared for Crown Prince Hirohito's 1923 Taiwan tour (台灣行啟), although he did not use it. Located in the traditional territory of the Atayal indigenous people, the hilltop site later became President Chiang Kai-shek's favourite retreat, who reportedly found the scenery reminiscent of his hometown Xikou in Zhejiang. The current villa dates to 1960 and was opened to the public in 1995.
Former Sanbankyo Japanese Cemetery (now Linsen Park & Kangle Park)
三板橋日本人共同墓地跡（現・林森公園・康樂公園）
Site of the largest Japanese communal cemetery in colonial Taipei, established in 1896 and formally laid out in 1900 with a capacity of approximately 8,000 graves across 6,000 tsubo. Notable burials included Governor-General Akashi Motojirō (1919) and the mother of Governor-General Nogi Maresuke (1896). After Japan's defeat in 1945, the cemetery was overrun by Nationalist military dependents and refugees who used tombstones as building materials, creating Taipei's largest illegal settlement with over 1,000 households by the 1980s. Forcibly cleared in 1997 under Mayor Chen Shui-bian, the area was redeveloped as Kangle Park (west, 2002) and Linsen Park (east, 2003). Two Shinto torii gates — originally erected in 1920 for Akashi's grave and in 1935 for his aide Kamata Masatake — were relocated to 228 Peace Memorial Park in 1997, then returned to Linsen Park in 2010, where they stand today.
Renzhiguan Gorge
人止関
Renzhiguan ("Where Humans Must Stop") is a natural gorge on Taiwan Provincial Route 14 between Puli and Wushe in Ren'ai Township, Nantou County. Formed by the Mei River cutting through sandstone, the narrow pass served as a historical boundary between Han lowland settlers and Seediq indigenous territory. In 1902, Seediq warriors exploited the gorge's natural defences to repel a Japanese military advance, and during the 1930 Wushe Incident, anti-Japanese Seediq forces considered extending their resistance to this strategic chokepoint.
Dafen Police Station Ruins
大分駐在所跡
Ruins of a remote Japanese colonial police outpost in the Bunun indigenous territory of eastern Taiwan, established in 1911 on the Batongguan Traversing Trail. Site of the 1915 Dafen Incident, which triggered 18 years of armed Bunun resistance — the longest indigenous anti-Japanese campaign in Taiwanese history.
Ama Museum — Peace and Women's Human Rights Museum
阿嬤家―平和と女性人権館
Taiwan's only museum dedicated to the memory of Taiwanese comfort women (慰安婦) forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military during World War II. Established by the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, the museum opened on December 10, 2016 — International Human Rights Day — and documents the stories of approximately 59 Taiwanese survivors through oral histories, personal artifacts, and audiovisual archives collected over decades of research since 1992.
Keelung Fortress Command Headquarters
基隆要塞司令部
Command headquarters of the Keelung Fortress (基隆要塞), the highest military command center for coastal defense in northern Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule. Established in 1903, the fortress command oversaw battery positions across the Keelung, Jinshan, Tamsui, Hsinchu, and Houlong areas. The current reinforced concrete headquarters building was completed in 1929, designed by Governor-General's Office architect Asai Shin'ichi. During WWII, the command directed the Keelung Fortress Heavy Artillery Regiment and coordinated air defense during the 1944 Taiwan Air Battle. Designated a Keelung municipal historic site in 2010 and restored for public access in 2022.
Taiwan Governor-General Monopoly Bureau, Chiayi Branch
台湾総督府専売局嘉義支局
The Chiayi Branch of the Taiwan Governor-General's Monopoly Bureau, built in 1936 and designed by architect Umezawa Setsujiro in a modernist style combining Art Deco elements. The three-story reinforced concrete building managed the tobacco, alcohol, camphor, and salt monopolies in the Chiayi area during the Japanese colonial period. Now preserved as the Chiayi Art Museum, it is a designated municipal historic site.
Taichung Park & Taichung Shrine Ruins
台中公園・台中神社跡
Taichung Park, established in 1903 during the Japanese colonial period, is one of Taiwan's oldest public parks. It originally housed the first-generation Taichung Shrine (台中神社, est. 1911), whose remnants — including stone lanterns, a torii gate laid on its side, bronze horses and stone lions — still survive in the park grounds. The park's iconic Huixin Pavilion (湖心亭), built in 1908 on the central lake, is a designated municipal monument and Taichung's best-known landmark.
Ximen Red House (Former Ximen Market)
西門紅楼（旧西門市場）
Often described as Taiwan's first government-built public market, completed in 1908 during the Japanese colonial era. Designed by architect Kondō Jūrō (近藤十郎) of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, the distinctive red brick octagonal structure (八角堂) in Taipei's Wanhua District is one of the most iconic Japanese colonial-era commercial buildings in Taiwan. It survived WWII bombing and is now a designated municipal heritage site and cultural-creative hub.
Taiwan Governor-General Library Site
臺灣總督府圖書館跡
Site of the Taiwan Governor-General Library (臺灣總督府圖書館), the only official public library in colonial Taiwan, established in 1914 and opened in 1915 on Bo'ai Road, Taipei. Designed by architect Kondō Jūrō, the building originally served as the Governor-General's Lottery Bureau. By 1943, the library housed nearly 200,000 volumes, including invaluable collections on Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific that supported Japan's "southward advance" (南進政策) research. The building was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945, but the final director Yamanaka Shō evacuated approximately 190,000 volumes to four locations across Taipei before the destruction. After the war, the collections were transferred to the Taiwan Provincial Library (now the National Taiwan Library in Zhonghe). The original site is now occupied by the Ministry of National Defense Bo'ai Building.
Taiwan Governor-General Telephone Exchange Bureau
臺灣總督府電話交換局
The central telephone exchange building for colonial Taiwan, completed in 1937 in the modernist style by architect Suzuoki Ryoichi under the Communications Bureau (遞信部) of the Governor-General's Office. Located on Shoin-cho (書院町) in Taipei, it housed the first automatic telephone switching system in Taiwan, replacing the earlier manual exchange. Designated a Taipei Municipal Historic Site in 1998, the building now serves as the Chunghwa Telecom Bo'ai Service Center.
Former Mitsui & Co. Taipei Branch
三井物産株式会社台北支店
The former Taipei branch of Mitsui & Co. (三井物産), Japan's largest trading conglomerate (zaibatsu), built from 1920, completed in 1922 and located at No. 54 Guanqian Road in Taipei's Zhongzheng District. Credited to Hirano Yūzō and Nomura Ichirō and built in the Tatsuno-style Renaissance Revival manner, the three-story building served as the headquarters for Mitsui's extensive colonial trading, banking, and insurance operations in Taiwan. Mitsui & Co. was instrumental in exporting Taiwan's key commodities — tea, rice, sugar, camphor, salt, and tobacco — while investing across virtually all sectors of the colonial economy. Originally situated in Dadaocheng along the Tamsui River, Mitsui relocated to the prestigious Honmachi (本町) commercial district as Taipei's economic center shifted. Its present simplified modernist form dates either from a 1940 rebuilding or, according to other research, from a 1946–1947 reconstruction by architect Lu Shu-sen after Allied bomb damage in 1945. After the war it served as the Veterans Affairs Council headquarters (until 1988), then housed Taiwan Land Bank offices, and later the Supreme Prosecutors' Special Investigation Division. Designated a Taipei City Municipal Historic Site in 1998, the building is currently owned by Taiwan Land Bank and remains closed to the public.
Nippon Kangyo Bank Taipei Branch (Now Land Bank Exhibition Hall)
日本勧業銀行台北支店（現・国立台湾博物館土銀展示館）
The Taipei branch of the Nippon Kangyo Bank (日本勧業銀行), completed in 1933 during the Japanese colonial era, was a major financial institution managing agricultural and industrial loans critical to colonial Taiwan's economic development. Designed by the bank's own building section with a monumental colonnade and Mayan Revival ornament, and built by Obayashi-gumi, the building exemplified Japanese colonial ambitions to project permanence and modernity. After Taiwan's retrocession in 1945, the building became the headquarters of the Land Bank of Taiwan (臺灣土地銀行) until 1965. Designated a municipal heritage site in 1991, it was extensively restored and reopened in 2010 as the National Taiwan Museum Land Bank Exhibition Hall (國立臺灣博物館土銀展示館), now housing natural history exhibits including large-scale dinosaur fossils and a preserved historical bank vault.
Qishan Old Street Stone Arcade
旗山老街（石拱圈亭仔腳）
Qishan Old Street (旗山老街) in Kaohsiung's Qishan District is one of the best-preserved Japanese colonial-era commercial streets in southern Taiwan. Developed from 1903 under Japan's urban improvement plan ("市街改正"), the street features distinctive Baroque-style facades built between 1925 and 1930 by wealthy banana and sugar merchants. Its most iconic feature is the stone arcade (石拱圈亭仔腳), a covered walkway constructed of sandstone arches — each arch said to be composed of 33 cut sandstone blocks — dating to the 1910s–1920s. The street flourished alongside the sugar industry and the sugar railway that reached Qishan in 1910, which transported sugar, bananas, and goods to Kaohsiung's port. Designated a historic building in 2005, Qishan Old Street remains a vibrant commercial district and a living testament to Taiwan's Japanese colonial architectural heritage.
Nenggao Cross-Ridge Trail
能高越嶺道
A major Japanese colonial-era mountain trail crossing the Central Mountain Range between Nantou and Hualien counties in Taiwan. Built in 1917-1918 by the Japanese colonial government with 16 garrison stations for aboriginal control and police administration, it later became the route for Taiwan's first east-west power transmission line in the 1950s.
Hehuan Cross-Ridge Road (Wushe to Taroko)
合歓越嶺道（霧社—太魯閣）
A military road built across the Central Mountain Range by the Japanese colonial government during the 1914 Taroko War. Stretching from Wushe in Nantou to Taroko in Hualien, the road served as the primary route for the "aboriginal pacification" (理蕃) campaign to subjugate the Truku people, and later became the basis for the modern Central Cross-Island Highway.
Karenko Prefectural Government Office Site
花蓮港庁舎跡
The Karenko (花蓮港) Prefectural Government Office was the highest administrative authority for the Hualien area of eastern Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. Established in 1909 when Taiwan was reorganized from twenty to twelve prefectures, the office oversaw a vast mountainous territory corresponding to present-day Hualien County; Taitung remained a separate prefecture. The original wooden building was destroyed by fire in 1910 and rebuilt as a Japanese-Western hybrid structure. A modernist concrete building replaced it around 1936. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the building served as the Hualien County Government headquarters until earthquake damage forced relocation to the current Meilun district site.
Taito Prefectural Government Office Site
台東庁庁舎跡
Site of the Taito Prefectural Government Office (台東廳舍), the administrative center for southeastern Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period (1897–1945). The original 1899 office was built with materials shipped from Kobe, Japan, and located on Malan Ridge Street. After damage from termites, a 1909 earthquake, and a devastating 1919 typhoon, a new reinforced concrete two-story building was completed in July 1922 at a cost of 96,500 yen. After Japan's surrender, the building served as the Taitung County Government headquarters until renovations began in 1975.
Ruisui Immigrant Village Site
瑞穂移民村（水尾移民村）
Site of a Japanese government-sponsored immigrant village (官營移民村) established from the mid-1920s in Ruisui Township, Hualien County, eastern Taiwan. Part of the colonial policy to settle Japanese farmers in Taiwan's East Rift Valley, the village specialized in tobacco cultivation and was one of over ten immigrant settlements established along the eastern coast during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945).
Sun Moon Lake Second Hydroelectric Power Plant (Jugong Power Plant)
日月潭第二発電所（鉅工発電所）
The second hydroelectric power plant of the Sun Moon Lake system, completed in August 1937 in Shuili Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. Built by the Taiwan Electric Power Company during the Japanese colonial period, the 43.5 MW facility utilized tailwater from the first Sun Moon Lake plant through a 4,409-meter tunnel, generating approximately 150 million kWh annually to fuel Taiwan's wartime industrialization. The plant was severely damaged by Allied bombing in March 1945 but was rebuilt after the war and remains operational today.
Kashino Immigrant Village Ruins (Longtian Village)
鹿野移民村跡（龍田村）
Remnants of a Japanese government-sponsored immigrant village established in 1915 in Luye Township, Taitung County, Taiwan. Originally known as Kashino Village (鹿野村), it was one of the most significant colonial-era planned settlements on Taiwan's east coast, retaining well-preserved Japanese-style buildings, street grids, and the former Shikano Village Office.
Batongguan Traversing Trail (Japanese Era)
八通関越嶺道（日本統治時代）
A 125-kilometer mountain patrol road built by the Japanese colonial government across Taiwan's Central Mountain Range between 1919 and 1921, connecting Nantou and Hualien. Constructed under armed police escort to control indigenous Bunun communities, the trail featured dozens of police stations and fortified positions. It now lies within Yushan National Park and is maintained as a historic hiking route.
Taiwan Cement Shoushan Quarry Site
台湾セメント高雄工場跡・寿山採石場
The Shoushan limestone quarry operated by Asano Cement (from 1913) and later Taiwan Cement Corporation (from 1946) on the slopes of Shoushan (Monkey Mountain) in Kaohsiung. Over nearly 80 years of industrial quarrying, vast quantities of coral reef limestone were extracted to feed Taiwan's first modern large-scale cement plant at the mountain's base. Mining ceased in 1992 when concession rights expired, and the scarred mountain has since been incorporated into Shoushan National Nature Park. The quarry site serves as a stark reminder of wartime and postwar industrial exploitation of Taiwan's natural landscapes.
Songshan Brick Kiln (Taiwan Renga Co. Matsuyama Factory)
松山煉瓦工場（台湾煉瓦株式会社松山工場）
A major brick kiln factory in the Songshan area of Taipei operated by Taiwan Renga Co. (台灣煉瓦株式會社), which was founded in 1913 and acquired the Songshan works in 1918. The factory produced TR-branded red bricks used in colonial-era construction across Taiwan, employing Hoffmann kilns (八卦窯) for continuous mass production. The Taiwan Renga Company, founded by Ushiroku Shintarō (後宮信太郎), was the dominant brick manufacturer during the Japanese colonial period, supplying building materials for government offices, railways, and infrastructure throughout the island.
Hayashi Department Store
林百貨店（ハヤシ百貨店）
A landmark colonial-era department store in Tainan, Taiwan, opened in 1932 during Japanese rule. The rooftop preserves a Shinto shrine (Suehiro Shrine) and visible bullet and bomb damage from WWII American air raids. Restored and reopened in 2014 as a cultural retail space, it is one of Taiwan's most significant heritage tourism sites.
Green Island White Terror Memorial Park
白色テロ緑島記念園区（火焼島）
The Green Island White Terror Memorial Park is a 32-hectare memorial complex on Green Island (Ludao), Taitung County, Taiwan, preserving the former political prison facilities where thousands of dissidents were detained during the White Terror era (1949–1987). Originally a vagrants' shelter under Japanese colonial rule when the island was known as Kashoto (火燒島), the site housed the New Life Correction Center from 1951 and, after 1970, the notorious Oasis Villa prison. Named a human rights memorial park in 2001, formally opened in December 2002 and transferred to the National Human Rights Museum in 2018, the park now serves as Taiwan's most significant site of conscience for political persecution.
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.
Kikumoto Department Store
菊元百貨店
Taiwan's first modern department store, opened in 1932 in Sakaechō (榮町), Taihoku (Taipei) by Japanese entrepreneur Eiji Shigeta. The seven-story building — nicknamed 'Seven-Storied Sky' (七重天) — was the second tallest structure in colonial Taiwan after the Governor-General's Office. It featured Taiwan's first commercial passenger elevator and became the symbol of modernity and consumer culture in Japanese-ruled Taipei. The building still stands at 148-150 Boai Road in Zhongzheng District, now occupied by Cathay United Bank, and was designated a historic building by Taipei City Government in 2017.
Zuoying Old City (Old City of Fongshan County)
左営旧城（鳳山県旧城）
A Qing-dynasty walled city in present-day Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, first enclosed with earthen walls in 1722 and rebuilt in stone in 1825–26; it is often billed as Taiwan's first stone city, although Changhua's masonry walls are recorded as earlier. During the Japanese colonial period, the walled city was designated a military restricted zone to protect the adjacent Zuoying Naval Port from 1940 onward, with over fifty households forcibly relocated and the West Gate demolished. The Japanese Imperial Navy deployed Shinyo suicide motorboat squadrons within the old city area during WWII. Designated a first-class (now national) historic site in 1985, the East, North, and South Gates survive along with portions of the stone walls.
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.
Rinzai Gokoku Zen Temple (Linji Huguo Chan Temple)
臨濟宗護國禪寺（鎮南山護國禪寺）
The largest surviving Japanese Buddhist temple from the colonial era in Taiwan, originally built in 1900-1912 as Chin'nanzan Gokoku-ji by order of Governor-General Kodama Gentaro. The temple served as a "nation-protecting" (護國) prayer site for the Japanese Empire and housed the headquarters of the Rinzai Zen school in Taiwan. Its main hall (大雄寶殿) is one of the few remaining Japanese-period wooden Buddhist halls in Taiwan, now designated a Taipei municipal historic monument.
Chikan Tower (Former Japanese Army Garrison Hospital)
赤崁楼（旧・陸軍衛戍病院）
Originally Fort Provintia built by the Dutch East India Company in 1653, Chikan Tower in Tainan was converted into a Japanese Army Garrison Hospital (陸軍衛戍病院) after Japan began colonial rule of Taiwan in 1895. The historic fortress complex, including the Haishen Temple and Wenchang Pavilion, served military medical purposes during the Japanese period before being restored as one of Taiwan's most important national historic monuments.
Ji'an Keishuin (Yoshino Shingon Temple)
吉野布教所（慶修院）
Ji'an Keishuin is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Ji'an Township, Hualien County, Taiwan, originally built in 1917 as the Yoshino Propagation Center (真言宗吉野布教所) to serve Japanese immigrants in the Yoshino settlement. It is one of the best-preserved Japanese-era Buddhist temples in Taiwan and has been a county-designated historic monument since 1997.
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 Communications Bureau
臺灣總督府交通局遞信部
The Communications Bureau (遞信部) of the Taiwan Governor-General's Office, completed in 1924–1925 and designed by Moriyama Matsunosuke. This Western classical building on Changsha Street in Taipei managed all postal, telegraph, telephone, and broadcasting services across colonial Taiwan, and served as a critical hub for wartime communications control and censorship. Now a designated municipal historic monument housing the Academia Historica.
Former Outer Garden of Taiwan Shrine (Dazhi)
台湾神社外苑跡（大直）
The outer grounds (gaien) around the Taiwan Gokoku Shrine in the Dazhi area of Taipei — formally the outer garden of the Taiwan Shrine (臺灣神社外苑), within which the Gokoku Shrine stood — encompassing the surrounding military training facilities, sacred forest, and ceremonial approach areas distinct from the main shrine precinct. Planned from the late 1930s as part of the Taiwan Grand Shrine (台灣神宮) relocation project, the outer garden was designed to include martial arts training halls, ceremonial venues, and athletic facilities. During the war, Allied POWs from the nearby Taihoku No. 6 Camp were forced to perform earthworks and railroad construction in this area. The outer grounds now form part of the parkland and military zones surrounding the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine.
Toyoda Immigrant Village Ruins
豐田移民村跡
Ruins of a Japanese government-sponsored immigrant village established in 1913 in Shoufeng Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. One of the best-preserved colonial-era settlement sites in eastern Taiwan, featuring the former Toyoda Shrine (now Biliansi Temple), original torii gate, stone lanterns, guardian lion statues, and remnants of Japanese-era irrigation infrastructure.
Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields
北門井仔脚瓦盤塩田
Taiwan's oldest surviving salt field, established in 1818 during the Qing dynasty and operated under the Japanese colonial government's salt monopoly system from 1895 to 1945. During WWII, salt production here supported Japan's military and industrial needs. Now restored as a cultural heritage tourism site in Beimen District, Tainan.
Ruisan Coal Mine (Houtong)
瑞三鉱業（猴硐炭鉱）
A major coal mine operated by Ruisan Mining Company in the Houtong area of Ruifang District, New Taipei City. Ruisan was founded in 1934, when Li Jianxing leased workings previously run by the Mitsui-backed Keelung Coal Mining Company; its coal supplied wartime industry and transportation, and after the war it became the largest single coal producer in Taiwan. The site now serves as the Houtong Coal Mine Ecological Park.
Jiufen Gold Mine (Jiufen Old Street)
九份金鉱跡（九份老街）
Major gold mining town in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, that prospered during the Japanese colonial period. Mining rights were granted to Fujita-gumi (藤田組) in 1896, later passing to the Yan family's Taiyo Mining Company (台陽鉱業). Gold production peaked in the 1930s-40s, supporting Japan's wartime economy. The town's distinctive staircase streets, teahouses, and Shengping Theater survive from the mining era. The mines closed in 1971.
Taichung Prison Martial Arts Hall
臺中刑務所演武場
A martial arts training hall (budokan) built in 1937 as part of the Taichung Prison complex during the Japanese colonial period. Used for kendo and judo practice by prison officials and police, it is the only surviving Japanese-era martial arts hall in Taichung. The symmetrical building features a traditional Japanese irimoya-style roof with a central shrine flanked by judo and kendo training areas. After a devastating fire in 2006, it was meticulously restored by 2010 and operated as the Daohe Liuyi Cultural Center from 2012 to 2023.
Eluanbi Lighthouse
鵝鑾鼻灯台
Built in 1883 at the southernmost tip of Taiwan, Eluanbi Lighthouse is often described as the only armed lighthouse in the world, featuring fortress walls, gun ports, a moat, and a garrison. During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945) the lighthouse was rebuilt in 1898 and upgraded with modern equipment. It was severely damaged by American air raids during WWII and reconstructed by the Republic of China in 1947.
Dihua Street (Dadaocheng)
迪化街（大稲埕・永楽町通り）
Historic commercial street in the Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area of Datong District, Taipei, Taiwan. Known as Eiraku-chō (永楽町) during the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), the street underwent major urban improvement under Japanese rule, resulting in distinctive Baroque-style shophouse facades. It served as the commercial heart of the Taiwanese business community throughout the colonial era, trading in tea, Chinese medicinal herbs, fabrics, and dried goods. The "Ten Consecutive Buildings" (十連棟), completed in 1912, are among the best-preserved examples of Japanese colonial-era commercial architecture in Taipei. The street itself largely escaped wartime air raids, preserving its historic streetscape.
Chuhuangkeng Oil Mine
出磺坑油鉱
Taiwan's earliest petroleum extraction site, where a well hand-dug in 1861 is often described as Asia's first and the world's second oil well. During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), the site was developed by Japanese oil companies using modern drilling technology to deepen wells and boost production. Annual crude output peaked in 1927 at about 22,830 kiloliters. Now preserved as a heritage site with the Taiwan Oil Field Exhibition Hall, it remains one of the world's oldest continuously operating oil and gas fields.
Guanziling Hot Spring
関子嶺温泉
One of Taiwan's "Four Great Hot Springs" during the Japanese colonial period, discovered by Japanese troops in 1898 in present-day Baihe District, Tainan. Famous for its rare alkaline mud spring water (泥漿溫泉), the area was developed as a resort destination with bathhouses and inns under Japanese rule and came to be styled "the foremost spirit spring under heaven" (天下第一靈泉).
Shoushan Cave Fortification Complex
高雄寿山洞窟陣地群
An extensive network of Japanese military tunnels, cave fortifications, and underground positions excavated into Shoushan (Monkey Mountain) in Kaohsiung during WWII. As the headquarters of the Kaohsiung Fortress (高雄要塞), the mountain was honeycombed with dozens of tunnel systems serving as coastal defense gun emplacements, ammunition magazines, command posts, communications centers, and air-raid shelters. Distinct from the individual Gushan Cave tourist site, this complex encompasses the broader network of military cave positions spread across Shoushan that formed the core of Japan's southwestern Taiwan defense system.
Bopiliao Historic Block
剝皮寮歴史街区
A remarkably preserved historic street in Taipei's Wanhua District, spanning the Qing Dynasty, Japanese colonial, and postwar eras. During Japanese rule, the 1905 Urban Improvement Plan (市區改正) transformed the area by opening Guangzhou Street behind the old shophouses, creating distinctive "two-faced shops" with Qing-era facades on one side and Western-influenced Japanese colonial facades on the other. Designated as school land in 1941, which inadvertently preserved the streetscape from redevelopment for decades.
Fuguijiao Lighthouse
富貴角灯台
Fuguijiao Lighthouse, located at Cape Fugui in Shimen District, New Taipei City, is the northernmost lighthouse in Taiwan. Built in 1897 by the Japanese colonial government as the second lighthouse constructed during the colonial period, it features a distinctive octagonal tower with black-and-white horizontal stripes designed for visibility in the area's frequent fog. Damaged by Allied air raids during World War II, it was rebuilt in stages and restored to its original striped appearance by 1962.
Xinfu Market (Shintomicho Public Market)
新富町食料品小売市場
A horseshoe-shaped modernist public market built in 1935 during the Japanese colonial period in Wanhua District, Taipei. One of the best-preserved Japanese-era public market buildings in Taiwan, it was designated a Taipei City historic site in 2006 and reopened in 2017 as the U-mkt (新富町文化市場), a cultural and creative space combining food education, exhibitions, and community programs.
Taichung Second Public Market
台中市第二小売市場（新富町市場）
Public market built in 1917 by the Japanese colonial government in the Shintomichō (新富町) district of Taichung, Taiwan. Designed with a distinctive hexagonal central tower and three radial wings, it served as the primary marketplace for Japanese residents and affluent customers, earning the nickname "the Japanese market." Rebuilt in 1936 after a fire, the market remains one of the oldest surviving public market buildings in central Taiwan and continues to operate as an active traditional market with over 300 vendors.
Donghe Zen Temple (Soto Zen Daihonzan Taiwan Branch)
曹洞宗大本山台灣別院（東和禪寺）
The headquarters of Soto Zen Buddhism in colonial Taiwan, established in 1908 in Taipei's Dongmen District. Originally named Soto-shu Daihonzan Taiwan Betsuin (曹洞宗大本山台灣別院), it was one of the largest Japanese Buddhist temple complexes on the island. The reinforced-concrete main hall was completed in 1923, and a distinctive bell tower combining Edo and Momoyama architectural styles was added in 1930. After 1945 the temple was renamed Donghe Zen Temple (東和禪寺). The original main hall was demolished in 1993, but the bell tower survives as a designated Taipei City historic monument, restored in 2006.
Sun Moon Lake Hanbi Lou (The Lalu Historic Site)
日月潭涵碧楼
A Japanese-era lakeside inn on the Hanbi Peninsula of Sun Moon Lake — dated to 1901 in the popular account, but to 1916 in period records — Hanbi Lou was rebuilt as a two-story cypress guesthouse in 1928. It was reportedly prepared for Crown Prince Hirohito's 1923 tour of Taiwan, although he did not visit the lake. It later served as President Chiang Kai-shek's retreat. The Japanese building was demolished in 1966, its successor was destroyed in the 1999 earthquake, and a modern luxury hotel (The Lalu) opened beside the site in 2002, with a memorial hall preserving its history.
Meiji Bridge Site (Zhongshan Bridge)
明治橋跡（中山橋）
The Meiji Bridge (明治橋), later renamed Zhongshan Bridge (中山橋), was an iconic reinforced concrete arch bridge spanning the Keelung River in Taipei, connecting the colonial capital to the Taiwan Grand Shrine on Maruyama hill. Originally built as an iron truss bridge in 1901, it was reconstructed in 1933 as a graceful three-arch concrete bridge with granite railings from Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and ornamental bronze lamp columns — widely regarded as the most beautiful bridge in colonial Taiwan. In the 1927 "Eight Scenic Spots of Taiwan" selection, Taiwan Shrine was named one of two special sites ranked apart from the eight, and the bridge served as the ceremonial gateway on the approach road (參道) to the Taiwan Shrine. After Japan's defeat it was renamed Zhongshan Bridge in 1946. The bridge was controversially dismantled from December 2002 under Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's administration, ostensibly for flood control along the Keelung River. Its 435 stone and concrete components were stored at a riverside site for potential future reconstruction, but as of 2026 they remain in open-air storage, weathering and deteriorating with no confirmed relocation plan.
Tainan Broadcasting Bureau (Tainan Hōsōkyoku)
臺南放送局（JFBK）
The Tainan Broadcasting Bureau (臺南放送局, call sign JFBK) was the regional radio broadcasting station for southern Taiwan, established in 1932 by the Taiwan Broadcasting Association within South Gate Park. It broadcast news, cultural programming, wartime propaganda, and relayed the Emperor's surrender announcement on August 15, 1945. Now a designated municipal historic monument, the building serves as the Tainan South Gate Film Center.
Xiluo Bridge
西螺大橋
A landmark bridge spanning the Zhuoshui River in Yunlin County, Taiwan. Designed by Japanese colonial engineers, with the contract let in December 1937 and work begun in 1938, construction was halted during WWII when Japan requisitioned steel materials for the war effort. Thirty piers and two abutments were completed during the Japanese period. The bridge was finally completed in 1953 with US aid, stretching 1,939 meters and hailed at the time as the longest bridge in the Far East.
Camphor Factory Ruins (Nanzhuang / Daxi)
樟脳工場跡（南庄・大渓）
Ruins and heritage sites associated with Taiwan's camphor industry in Nanzhuang (Miaoli County) and Daxi (Taoyuan). During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), Taiwan supplied roughly 80% of the world's camphor. The colonial government established a monopoly in 1899, with camphor bureaus in Miaoli and other mountain-adjacent prefectures. The industry's expansion into indigenous mountain territories was a primary driver of the "aboriginal pacification" (理蕃) policy, leading to violent conflicts such as the 1902 Nanzhuang Incident. Camphor was essential for manufacturing celluloid, smokeless gunpowder, and medicines, making Taiwan a strategically vital colony.
Taiwan Governor-General Central Research Institute, Hygiene Department
台湾総督府中央研究所衛生部
The Hygiene Department of the Taiwan Governor-General's Central Research Institute was the principal public health research facility in colonial Taiwan. Established in 1909 and reorganized in 1921, it conducted critical research on tropical diseases including malaria, plague, and dengue fever, and produced vaccines and serums essential for military and civilian health throughout the Japanese colonial period and during WWII.
Taiwan Governor-General Tea Research Station
臺灣總督府殖產局附屬製茶試驗場
Established in 1903 as the Tea Manufacture Experiment Station under the Production Bureau of the Formosa Governor-General's Office, this was Taiwan's first professional tea research institution. Located in what is now Yangmei District, Taoyuan City, the station played a central role in improving Taiwan's tea cultivation, processing techniques, and pest control during the Japanese colonial period, when tea was one of Taiwan's most important export commodities.
Taiwan Governor-General Keelung Quarantine Station
台湾総督府基隆検疫所
A port quarantine station established by the Taiwan Governor-General's Office in Keelung in 1899 as part of Japan's systematic public health modernization of colonial Taiwan. The facility was critical for preventing plague, cholera, and other infectious diseases from entering the island through its busiest international port.
Former Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office (now Executive Yuan)
台湾省行政長官公署跡（現・行政院）
Built between 1937 and 1940 as the Taipei Municipal Office during the Japanese colonial period, this building became the headquarters of the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office (台灣省行政長官公署) after Japan's surrender in 1945. Under Chief Administrator Chen Yi, it served as the highest governing authority during the turbulent postwar transition. On February 28, 1947, protesters marching to this building were fired upon by guards, a pivotal moment in the February 28 Incident (228事件) that triggered island-wide unrest. The building later housed the Taiwan Provincial Government and has served as the Executive Yuan (行政院) of the Republic of China since 1957. Designated a national historic site in 1998, it remains one of the most significant colonial-era government buildings in Taiwan.
Former Jodo-shu Taipei Betsu-in (Now Shandao Temple)
淨土宗台北別院（現・善導寺）
Originally established in 1895 as the Jodo-shu (Pure Land Buddhism) propagation center in Taipei, the Jodo-shu Taipei Betsu-in was the headquarters of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism in colonial Taiwan. The current reinforced-concrete main hall was designed by architect Hatakeyama Kisaburo and completed in 1937. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the temple was seized by the Taipei municipal government and later transferred to Chinese Buddhist management, becoming Shandao Temple (善導寺). It is described as the largest surviving establishment among the Japanese-era Buddhist temples of Taipei, although the 1937 main hall itself was demolished in 1998.
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.
Hengchun Old City Wall
恒春県城
A Qing dynasty walled city built 1875–1879 in Hengchun, the southernmost ancient fortified town in Taiwan. During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), the city walls were partially preserved and designated a historic monument in 1935. Nearby military airfields made the area strategically important during WWII, and bullet holes from American machine-gun strafing still scar the south gate wall section. All four original gates survive, making it the best-preserved Qing-era city wall in Taiwan.
Tainan Park (North District, Tainan)
台南公園（台南市北区）
Tainan Park is the oldest and largest urban park in Tainan, established in 1917 during the Japanese colonial period. Designed by landscape architect Sawai Hannosuke, the 14.6-hectare park featured Japanese-style garden elements including the historic Swallow Pond (燕潭), tropical botanical collections, and European-influenced landscaping. During World War II, the Japanese military is said to have set up a temporary field hospital within the park grounds, and air-raid shelters were constructed that survive to this day. After the war it was renamed Zhongshan Park, reverting to its original name in 2001, and was designated a Cultural Landscape in 2018.
Former Tainan Weather Observatory
旧台南測候所
Built in 1898 during Japanese colonial rule, the Former Tainan Weather Observatory is the oldest surviving meteorological station in Taiwan. Its unique eighteen-sided (octadecagonal) building with a central cylindrical observation tower — nicknamed the "Pepper Tube" — is the only surviving example of this early weather-station design in Taiwan. Designated a national historic monument in 2003, it now serves as the Museum of Meteorology.
Fort San Domingo (Tamsui Red Fort)
淡水紅毛城（聖多明哥城）
Fort San Domingo (紅毛城) is a historic fortress overlooking the Tamsui River estuary in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Originally built by the Spanish in 1628 as Fort Santo Domingo and rebuilt in stone by the Dutch in 1644, it became a British consulate in 1867. When Japan declared war on Britain in December 1941, the consulate was sealed and the British consul expelled to Japan, with the fort remaining under Japanese control until the end of WWII in 1945. Now designated a National Historic Monument, it is one of Taiwan's most important colonial-era landmarks.
Taiwan Governor-General Higher Agricultural and Forestry School
臺灣總督府高等農林學校
The Taiwan Governor-General Higher Agricultural and Forestry School (臺灣總督府高等農林學校) was a leading institution of agricultural higher education in colonial Taiwan, established in 1919 in Taipei under the orders of the Governor-General of Taiwan. Founded as the Advanced Academy of Agronomy and Forestry with Japanese academic Fumio Abe as its first principal, the school trained agricultural specialists who managed colonial resource exploitation across Taiwan. In 1928 it was incorporated into Taihoku Imperial University as an affiliated department, then regained independence in 1943 and relocated to Taichung. During wartime, students were mobilized for food production efforts to support Japan's war campaign. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the school was reorganized as the Taiwan Provincial Taichung Agricultural Junior College, eventually evolving into National Chung Hsing University (NCHU), one of Taiwan's leading research universities.
Chiayi Park & Kagi Shrine Ruins
嘉義公園・嘉義神社跡
Chiayi Park, established in 1910 during the Japanese colonial period, contains the ruins of Kagi Shrine (嘉義神社), one of the three shrines in Taiwan raised to kokuhei-shōsha rank in the 1940s. The shrine was founded in 1915, elevated to kokuhei-shōsha rank in 1944, and its main hall was destroyed by fire in 1994. Its former office buildings now serve as the Chiayi City Historical Relics Museum, while stone lanterns, komainu statues, and the sandō approach path remain intact.
Taiwan Sugar Research Institute
臺灣糖業試驗所
Founded in 1901 during the Japanese colonial period, the Taiwan Sugar Research Institute in Tainan served as the central research facility for Taiwan's colonial sugar industry. Originally established as a sugarcane testing station, it grew into an independent research institute by 1932, conducting comprehensive research on sugarcane cultivation, disease control, and sugar processing that underpinned Taiwan's most important colonial export commodity.
Kōtōsho (Orchid Island)
紅頭嶼（蘭嶼）
During the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), Orchid Island (Lanyu), then known as Kōtōsho (紅頭嶼), was designated by the Taiwan Governor-General's Office as an ethnological research area closed to the general public. The island served as a living anthropological laboratory where Japanese scholars—beginning with Torii Ryūzō's pioneering 1897 survey—studied the Tao (Yami) indigenous people and the island's tropical ecology. The colonial government prohibited settlement and development to preserve the indigenous culture in situ, in effect making it a protected anthropological research zone.
Grand Hotel Taipei (Former Taiwan Grand Shrine Site)
圓山大飯店（台湾神宮跡地）
The Grand Hotel Taipei is a landmark Chinese palace-style hotel established in 1952 on the former site of the Taiwan Grand Shrine (臺灣神宮) in Zhongshan District, Taipei. Championed by Madame Chiang (Soong Mei-ling), the hotel stands on the site of the demolished Shinto shrine and is often read as a symbol of the regime change from Japanese colonial rule to the Republic of China. Designed by architect Yang Cho-cheng, the iconic 87-metre vermilion main building with dragon motifs was completed on Double Tenth Day (October 10) 1973. Remnants of the shrine era — including stone walls, foundations, and komainu guardian lion-dogs — survive in the surrounding grounds.
Taiwan Governor-General Tainan Higher Technical School
台湾総督府台南高等工業学校
The only higher engineering education institution in colonial Taiwan until 1943, established in 1931 in Tainan by the Taiwan Governor-General. The school trained engineers in mechanical, electrical, and applied chemistry fields to support Taiwan's industrial development. During WWII, students and facilities were mobilized for wartime production. Now the campus of National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), one of Taiwan's top research universities.
Former Fudingkin Japanese Military Cemetery
覆鼎金日本軍人墓地跡
Site of a large Japanese burial ground in southern Taiwan, located in the Fudingkin (覆鼎金) area of Kaohsiung's Sanmin District. Originally part of the expansive Fudingkin Public Cemetery, this section housed the graves of Japanese soldiers and civilians who died during the colonial period (1895–1945) and WWII. When Zuoying was designated a military port during WWII, mass grave relocations from the Taoziyuan and Qianfengwei cemeteries created a large-scale Japanese burial ground here. After Japan's defeat in 1945, many Japanese graves were vandalized during anti-Japanese sentiment, and in 1957 the Japanese embassy collaborated with the ROC government to collect scattered Japanese remains, establishing the "Southern Region Japanese Remains Repository" (南部地區日本人遺骨安置所) within the tomb of businessman Sugimoto Otokichi (杉本音吉). The entire Fudingkin Cemetery was converted to parkland (Shuanghu Forest Park) between 2015 and 2020, with approximately 16,000 graves relocated.
Takao Customs House
高雄税関庁舎
The Takao Customs House, built in 1936 in Kaohsiung's Gushan District, served as the headquarters for Japanese colonial customs administration at one of Taiwan's busiest ports. As one of two major customs regions in colonial Taiwan alongside Keelung, it managed all import and export duties at Kaohsiung Port, enforcing trade controls central to Japan's economic exploitation of the island.
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.
Hsinchu Prefecture Library
新竹州立圖書館
A Neo-Renaissance public library built in 1925 in Hsinchu, Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. Constructed to commemorate Crown Prince Hirohito's 1923 visit to Taiwan, it is one of only three purpose-built public library buildings from the colonial era and retains the most complete original architecture among them. Now a designated municipal heritage site, the building currently houses a Starbucks cafe.
Hokuto District Office
北斗郡役所
The former site of the Hokuto District Office (北斗郡役所) in Beidou Township, Changhua County, Taiwan. Established in 1920 as the administrative center of Hokuto District under Taichū Prefecture during Japanese colonial rule, it governed eight townships across southern Changhua with a population of over 170,000. The original building no longer stands; the site is now occupied by the Beidou Police Station.
Former Taipei Army Cemetery (Liuzhangli)
台北陸軍墓地跡（六張犁）
Site of the former Imperial Japanese Army cemetery in the Liuzhangli area of Taipei's Da'an District. Established during the Japanese colonial period to inter soldiers who died in service in Taiwan, the cemetery was part of the broader Liuzhangli burial grounds that served Taipei's Japanese community. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the military graves were largely cleared as part of de-Japanization efforts, with scattered tombstones remaining among the hillside terrain. The area was subsequently incorporated into the Taipei Municipal Cemetery system and later became associated with the burial of White Terror political victims in the 1950s.
Wushe Branch Office of the Nōkō District Police
能高郡警察課霧社分室跡
Noko District (能高郡) was the Japanese colonial administrative unit covering the indigenous mountain areas of central Taiwan; its district office (能高郡役所) stood in Puli, while the district police kept a branch office (霧社分室) at Wushe. During the Wushe Incident of October 1930 — the largest armed indigenous uprising against Japanese rule in Taiwan — the district head was among those killed, and Wushe, retaken on 29 October, became the command post from which Japanese forces coordinated their counterattack against Seediq warriors led by Chief Mona Rudao.
Ershui Station (Former Erbashuei Station)
二水驛
Ershui Station, originally opened in 1905 as Erbashuei Station (二八水驛) during the Japanese colonial period, is a historically significant railway junction in Changhua County, Taiwan. Located at the point where the Jiji Branch Line diverges from the Western Trunk Line, it served as a strategic transport hub for materials heading into central Taiwan's mountainous interior. The current reinforced concrete station building, designed by Japanese architect Utsushiki Takeo (宇敷赳夫) and completed in 1935, replaced an earlier wooden structure and is now a designated county-level historic site. During the colonial era, three railway systems — the trunk line, the Jiji Line, and a sugar-company light railway — converged at Ershui, making it a critical logistics node for both civilian and military transport.
Keelung Harbor Integrated Administration Building
基隆港合同庁舎（海港大楼）
The Keelung Harbor Integrated Administration Building (基隆港合同廳舍), now known as the Harbor Building (海港大樓), is a reinforced concrete government office building completed in 1934 at Keelung Port. Designed by Taiwan Governor-General's Transportation Bureau engineer Ryoichi Suzuoki (鈴置良一), it consolidated eleven port-related agencies — including customs, harbor police, postal services, and commodity inspection bureaus — under one roof to streamline colonial port operations. The four-story structure with a 31.2-meter tower features earthquake-resistant cross-beam design and Streamline Moderne styling with ship-inspired decorative elements. Designated a Keelung City Historic Building in 2003, it continues to house port administration offices today.
Government-General of Korea (Gyeongbokgung, Seoul)
朝鮮総督府跡（ソウル景福宮）
The Government-General of Korea (朝鮮総督府) building, completed in 1926, served as the headquarters of Japanese colonial rule over Korea from 1926 to 1945. Designed by German architect Georg de Lalande and completed by Japanese architect Ichiro Nomura, the massive Neo-Renaissance structure was built directly in front of the main halls of Gyeongbokgung Palace — a siting widely regarded in Korea as intended to symbolize Japanese dominion and to disrupt the palace's geomantic (feng shui) alignment. After serving as the seat of the US military government, the South Korean National Assembly, and later the National Museum, the building was controversially demolished in 1995-1996 as part of a national effort to erase symbols of Japanese imperialism. The dome cupola was preserved and is now displayed at the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan.
Chōsen Shrine (Site of)
朝鮮神宮
The Chōsen Shrine (朝鮮神宮, Chōsen Jingū) was the highest-ranking Shinto shrine in colonial Korea, constructed atop Namsan Mountain in Seoul (then Keijō) and completed in 1925. Enshrining Amaterasu Ōmikami and Emperor Meiji, it served as the spiritual centrepiece of Japanese imperial assimilation policy, with compulsory worship enforced during the Asia-Pacific War. Demolished in October 1945 following liberation, the site is now part of Namsan Park, where the Patriot An Jung-geun Memorial Hall was built in 1970.
Seodaemun Prison History Hall
西大門刑務所（ソウル西大門区）
Seodaemun Prison (서대문형무소) was built by the Japanese colonial government in 1908 as Gyeongseong Prison, one of the first modern prisons on the Korean Peninsula. Throughout the Japanese occupation (1910–1945), it served as the primary facility for imprisoning, torturing, and executing Korean independence activists and political dissidents. Notable prisoners included Yu Gwan-sun, who died from torture in 1920 at age 17 after leading protests during the March First Movement, as well as Kim Ku and Ahn Chang-ho. Following the March First Movement of 1919, the prison held approximately 3,000 activists simultaneously. After Korea's liberation in 1945, the prison continued to operate under successive South Korean governments until its closure in 1987. In 1992, Seodaemun Independence Park was established on the grounds, and in 1998 the remaining structures were opened as the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. Eleven of the original 98 buildings are preserved, including underground cells, torture chambers, an execution building, and a watchtower.
Yongsan Garrison
龍山基地
Yongsan Garrison in Seoul was the principal Imperial Japanese Army base on the Korean Peninsula, home from 1908 to the headquarters of the Korea Garrison Army and its successor the Korea Army (朝鮮軍). Established during the Russo-Japanese War when Japan purchased approximately 3 million tsubo of land in Yongsan, the base became the nerve center of Japanese military control over Korea throughout the colonial period (1910-1945). After Japan's defeat, U.S. Army forces of the 7th Infantry Division occupied the garrison in September 1945. It subsequently served as the headquarters of United States Forces Korea (USFK) and the U.S. Eighth Army for over seven decades. As of 2018, USFK relocated to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, and the roughly 2.5 km² site — which still contains many Japanese-era brick buildings — is being returned to South Korea for conversion into a major public park.
Busan Port (Kanpu Ferry Terminal)
釜山港（関釜連絡船発着地）
Busan Port was the Korean terminus of the Kanpu (関釜) Ferry route connecting Shimonoseki, Japan to colonial Korea. Opened in 1905, the ferry service became a critical artery of Japan's colonial empire, transporting troops, settlers, and — most notoriously — hundreds of thousands of forcibly mobilized Korean laborers to wartime Japan between 1939 and 1945. The port's piers (1st through 4th and central) were built between 1912 and 1943 to handle growing military and commercial traffic. The Konron Maru, a Kanpu ferry, was sunk by the USS Wahoo in October 1943 with 583 casualties. By June 1945, Allied mining of the Korea Strait and air raids effectively shut the route down. Today the site is a modern international ferry terminal, and the National Memorial Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation stands in nearby Busan as a testament to the port's dark wartime legacy.
Gunsan Japanese Quarter (Gunsan, North Jeolla Province)
群山日本人街（全羅北道群山市）
One of the best-preserved Japanese colonial-era townscapes in Korea, located in Gunsan City, North Jeolla Province. Developed as a major rice export port under Japanese rule from the late 19th century, Gunsan retains a remarkable concentration of colonial-era architecture including the Hirotsu House (dated variously to c. 1925 or the 1930s), the former Gunsan Customs House (1908), and Dongguksa Temple — the only surviving Japanese-style Buddhist temple in Korea. The Japanese concession area featured a Western-grid street plan with 92 subdivided plots. Under the slogan "Time travel back to the 1930s," Gunsan has become a major heritage tourism destination.
Sup'ung Dam (Suiho Dam)
水豊ダム
Completed in 1941 on the Yalu River at the China-Korea border, the Sup'ung Dam was the largest hydroelectric dam in Asia and the third largest in the world at the time of construction. Built by two Yalu River hydroelectric companies headed by Noguchi Shitagau of Nichitsu (Japan Nitrogen Fertilizer Company), with its output shared between Korea and Manchukuo, the dam represented one of the greatest engineering achievements of the Japanese Empire. With a planned output of 700,000 kW from seven generating units driven by 105,000 kW Francis turbines, the dam supplied electricity throughout the Korean peninsula and southern Manchuria. During the Korean War, its power station was bombed repeatedly by UN forces in 1952-1953. The dam remains operational today, jointly managed by China and North Korea, and is featured on North Korea's national emblem.
Hungnam Nitrogen Fertilizer Factory (Chosen Nitrogen Fertiliser Complex)
興南窒素肥料工場
A massive chemical-industrial complex built by Japan Nitrogenous Fertilizer Company (Nichitsu/Chisso) in Hungnam, colonial Korea, beginning in 1927. At its peak it employed 45,000 workers across a 19.8-million-square-meter site, producing ammonium sulfate (world's third-largest capacity at 500,000 tons/year), explosives, synthetic fuels, and other chemicals for Japan's war effort. Powered by 12 hydroelectric stations generating 870,000 kW — including the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir system — the complex ranked among the largest chemical-industrial complexes in the Japanese empire.
Incheon Port (Jinsen)
仁川港
Incheon Port was the principal colonial trade gateway to Seoul during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910–1945). Opened as a treaty port in 1883, it witnessed Japan's military landings during the Sino-Japanese War (1894) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904), and was developed into a major hub for heavy industry and munitions production during WWII. The Open Port Area in Jung-gu retains significant Japanese colonial-era architecture, including former bank buildings and the Nippon Yusen shipping office.
Nippon Steel Kenjiho Steelworks (Songnim)
日本製鐵兼二浦製鐵所
One of the largest integrated steelworks in colonial Korea, originally built by Mitsubishi Steel in 1918 in Kenjiho (present-day Songnim, North Korea). Absorbed into Nippon Steel in 1934, the plant operated three blast furnaces producing 350,000 tons of pig iron annually. It supplied structural steel, shipbuilding plate, and low-phosphorus pig iron to the Imperial Japanese Navy, including Kure Naval Arsenal. Operations ceased on August 27, 1945.
Korean Women's Volunteer Labor Corps Memorial (Gwangju)
朝鮮女子勤労挺身隊関連跡（光州）
Memorial and documentation site in Gwangju, South Korea, commemorating the Korean Women's Volunteer Labor Corps (朝鮮女子勤労挺身隊). In 1944–45, young Korean girls — some in their early teens — were recruited through schools and local officials in the Gwangju and South Jeolla region to work in Japanese munitions factories, most notably the Mitsubishi aircraft works in Nagoya; survivors say the promised wages and schooling never materialised. A Statue of Peace (平和の少女像) stands near Gwangju City Hall, and the Gwangju-based Citizens' Group with the Women's Volunteer Labor Corps Grandmothers (근로정신대 할머니와 함께하는 시민모임), founded in 2009, continues to advocate for the victims' recognition and reparations.
Manchukuo Imperial Palace
満洲国皇宮
The Imperial Palace of Manchukuo in Hsinking (now Changchun), where Puyi, the last emperor of China, resided as the puppet emperor of the Japanese-controlled state of Manchukuo from 1932 to 1945. Now preserved as the Museum of the Imperial Palace of Manchukuo, it stands as a powerful symbol of Japanese imperialism in northeast China.
Mukden POW Camp (Hoten Camp)
奉天捕虜収容所（奉天俘虜収容所）
A major Japanese prisoner-of-war camp near Mukden (present-day Shenyang), Manchuria, operational from November 1942 to August 1945. The camp held approximately 2,000 Allied POWs in the main camp and its branch camps — including survivors of the Bataan Death March and, at a branch camp, senior commanders such as General Jonathan Wainwright — who were subjected to forced labor in Manchurian factories, starvation rations, brutal cold, and covert medical experiments linked to Unit 731. It is now the Shenyang WWII Allied POW Camp Site Museum, regarded as one of the most representative surviving Japanese POW camp sites.
Unit 731 Site (Pingfang, Harbin)
731部隊跡（ハルビン平房区）
The former headquarters of Unit 731 (731部隊), the Imperial Japanese Army's covert biological and chemical warfare research unit, located in the Pingfang District of Harbin, Manchuria (now Heilongjiang Province, China). Operational from 1936 to 1945 and led by Surgeon Lieutenant General Shiro Ishii (with Masaji Kitano in command from 1942 to 1945), the facility conducted large-scale human experimentation and developed biological weapons including plague, anthrax, and cholera. At least 3,000 prisoners, and by some estimates 10,000 or more — referred to by the dehumanizing codename "maruta" (丸太, logs) — perished in experiments. The site is now preserved as the Unit 731 Museum (侵華日軍第七三一部隊罪証陳列館), a national-level memorial and war crimes evidence exhibition hall that opened in 1985 and was extensively renovated with a new main building in 2015.
Keijo Imperial University Site
京城帝国大学跡
Site of Keijo Imperial University (1924–1946), the only imperial university established in colonial Korea. Founded as Japan's sixth imperial university in the Dongsung-dong area of Jongno-gu, Seoul, it comprised faculties of Law and Literature, Medicine, and Engineering. The institution served colonial administration and wartime research needs before being reorganized into Seoul National University in 1946.
Former Kwantung Army Headquarters (Hsinking/Changchun)
関東軍司令部跡（新京）
Site of the headquarters of the Kwantung Army (関東軍, Kantō-gun), the Imperial Japanese Army's most powerful overseas field army, located in Hsinking (新京, now Changchun), the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Built between 1932 and 1934 at Xinfa Road No. 577, the imposing building served as the nerve center from which the Kwantung Army exercised de facto control over Manchuria. The army orchestrated the Mukden Incident of September 18, 1931 — the false-flag operation that provided the pretext for Japan's conquest of Manchuria — and subsequently administered the region through the puppet government of Manchukuo. At its peak strength of over 700,000 troops in 1941, the Kwantung Army was the largest single Japanese military formation. The building survives today as the office of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee and is designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.
South Manchuria Railway Company Headquarters (Dalian)
南満洲鉄道株式会社本社
The headquarters of the South Manchuria Railway Company (満鉄/Mantetsu) in Dalian, the most powerful Japanese colonial enterprise in Manchuria. Established in 1906 and relocated to Dalian in 1907, Mantetsu was a semi-governmental conglomerate that controlled railways, coal mines, ports, hotels, hospitals, schools, and research institutes across Manchuria — effectively a state within a state. The building, originally a Russian-era commercial school, still stands in downtown Dalian as the offices of China Railway Shenyang Group Dalian Branch.
Showa Steel Works (Anshan Iron & Steel Works)
昭和製鋼所（鞍山製鉄所）
The largest steel works in Manchuria, operated by Showa Steel Works (昭和製鋼所), a subsidiary of the South Manchuria Railway and from 1938 of the Manchurian Industrial Development Company, in Anshan, Liaoning. By 1942 its annual capacity reached 3,600,000 tonnes, producing approximately 15% of pig iron and 6% of rolled steel across all Japanese-held territory. It was a primary strategic target of USAAF B-29 bombing raids from mid-1944, with reported losses of up to 30% of capacity, although Japanese accounts describe direct damage to the plant as limited. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the facility was dismantled by the Soviet Army; it was later rebuilt as the Anshan Iron & Steel Company (鞍鋼集團).
Fushun Coal Mine
撫順炭鉱
One of the world's largest open-pit coal mines, located in Fushun, Liaoning Province, Manchuria. Seized by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) from 1907, the mine became the financial backbone of Japanese colonial enterprise in Manchuria, producing up to 75% of total Manchurian coal output by 1930. During WWII, the mine relied heavily on Chinese and Korean forced laborers under brutal conditions, and a catastrophic dust explosion in 1917 killed 917 workers. The West Open Pit, measuring 6.6 km long, 2.0 km wide, and over 300 m deep, was the largest open-pit coal mine in Asia.
Hsinking (Changchun) Urban Plan Remains
新京（長春）都市計画跡
Hsinking (新京, now Changchun) served as the capital of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo from 1932 to 1945. Japanese urban planners designed an ambitious "Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking" covering 200 km², influenced by Parisian boulevards, the garden city movement, and 1920s American city planning. The central axis was Datong Avenue (大同大街, now Renmin Avenue/人民大街), a grand boulevard lined with government buildings and commercial facilities. With 47 km² of public land including parks and athletic grounds and 70.7 km² of greenery, Hsinking earned the nickname "Forest Capital" (森の都). Many Japanese-era buildings — including the Eight Grand Ministries (八大部), banks, hotels, and cultural institutions — survive in central Changchun and are now protected as historical sites.
Huludao Repatriation Port
葫芦島引揚港
The largest postwar Japanese repatriation port in Manchuria. Between May 1946 and August 1948, approximately 1.05 million Japanese civilians and prisoners of war were repatriated from Huludao to Japan, making it the single most significant embarkation point for the mass return of Japanese settlers from Northeast China after World War II.
Former Bank of Chosen Headquarters (Bank of Korea Money Museum)
朝鮮銀行本店跡（韓国銀行貨幣博物館）
The former headquarters of the Bank of Chosen (朝鮮銀行), the central bank of colonial Korea, completed in 1912 in Seoul's Jung-gu district. Designed by Tatsuno Kingo — the architect of Tokyo Station and the Bank of Japan — in a French Renaissance-inspired eclectic style with granite walls, the building served as the nerve center of Japan's colonial monetary system, issuing currency and financing Japanese enterprises across Korea and Manchuria. Heavily damaged during the Korean War, it was restored in 1958 and designated National Historic Site No. 280 in 1981. The Bank of Korea relocated in 1987, and the building reopened in 2001 as the Bank of Korea Money Museum (韓國銀行貨幣博物館), preserving one of the finest examples of Japanese colonial architecture on the Korean Peninsula.
Mukden Incident Site (September 18th History Museum)
柳条湖事件跡（九・一八歴史博物館）
Site of the Mukden Incident (September 18, 1931), the staged railway bombing by the Kwantung Army that served as the pretext for Japan's invasion of Manchuria. Lieutenant Suemori Kawamoto detonated dynamite on the South Manchuria Railway near Mukden (modern Shenyang), blaming Chinese soldiers. This false flag operation led directly to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the creation of the puppet state Manchukuo, setting Japan on its path toward full-scale war in Asia.
South Manchuria Railway Dalian Yamato Hotel
満鉄大連ヤマトホテル
The flagship Yamato Hotel in Dalian (Dairen), built by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) and opened on August 1, 1914. Attributed to Mantetsu architect Ota Takeshi and built in Renaissance style with Ionic giant-order granite columns, the four-story steel-framed brick building with 115 rooms served as the premier luxury hotel in Manchuria, hosting Japanese officials, foreign dignitaries, and international travelers transiting between Europe and Asia. It was the equivalent of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore or the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the Soviet Red Army briefly used it as a garrison command post before it was transferred to Chinese authorities. Renamed Dalian Hotel (大连宾馆) in 1956, the building is now a nationally protected cultural heritage site on Zhongshan Square in central Dalian.
Fushun War Criminals Management Centre
撫順戦犯管理所
A postwar Chinese facility in Fushun, Liaoning Province, used from 1950 to reform and re-educate Japanese war criminals transferred from Soviet custody. Originally built as a Japanese prison in 1936, it held approximately 1,000 Japanese detainees as well as Manchukuo prisoners including the former emperor Puyi. Known for its "lenient policy" approach, it released all its Japanese prisoners by 1964 and the remaining Manchukuo and Kuomintang prisoners by 1975. Converted into a museum in 1986.
Former Manchukuo State Council (Xinjing/Changchun)
満洲国国務院跡（新京/長春）
The State Council (国務院) of Manchukuo served as the executive administrative headquarters of the Japanese puppet state from 1932 to 1945. Designed by Japanese architect Tatsuro Ishii and completed in 1936, the imposing reinforced-concrete building with its distinctive pseudo-oriental roof stood at the northern end of Xinmin Avenue, at the head of the government quarter popularly known as the "Eight Grand Ministries" (八大部), in the purpose-built capital of Xinjing (modern-day Changchun). While Manchukuoan ministers nominally headed each department, Japanese vice-ministers appointed by the Kwantung Army wielded the real power. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the building passed through Soviet and Chinese Nationalist hands before becoming part of Jilin University. Designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 2013, the building now houses the College of Basic Medical Sciences of Jilin University and stands as one of Changchun's most prominent landmarks of the Manchukuo era.
Port of Dalian (Dairen)
大連港
The largest commercial port in Manchuria during Japanese rule (1905–1945), operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company. Originally developed by Russia as the port of Dalny from 1899, it was expanded by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War into a major hub for exporting Manchurian resources—coal, steel, and soybeans—to the Japanese home islands. By 1932, approximately 75% of all Manchukuo trade flowed through Dalian. The port also served as the primary gateway for Japanese settlers entering Manchuria and the departure point for repatriation after 1945.
Harbin Yamato Hotel
哈爾浜ヤマトホテル
The Harbin Yamato Hotel (哈爾浜ヤマトホテル) was a luxury hotel operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) in Harbin, the largest city in northern Manchuria. Originally constructed in 1901–1903 as the Chinese Eastern Railway Hotel by the Russian-controlled CER administration opposite Harbin's main railway station, the building was extensively renovated and reopened on February 1, 1937 as a 56-room Yamato Hotel — Mantetsu's flagship property in the Harbin zone. It served as the social and diplomatic center for Japanese residents and officials in northern Manchuria throughout the Manchukuo era. The Art Nouveau building survives today as the Longmen Dasha VIP Hotel (龙门大厦贵宾楼) at 85 Hongjun Street, Nangang District, and is designated a Harbin Grade 1 Protected Building.
Yalu River Broken Bridge
鴨緑江断橋
A truncated railway bridge in Dandong, Liaoning Province, China, originally constructed by the Empire of Japan in 1911 to connect Manchuria with Korea across the Yalu River. The bridge was part of the strategic rail network linking the Korean port of Busan all the way to Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway. During the Korean War, United States Air Force B-29 bombers destroyed the North Korean spans in November 1950 and February 1951. The surviving four spans on the Chinese side were preserved in 1993 as a war memorial and national historical site, serving as a stark reminder of the conflicts that shaped Northeast Asia in the twentieth century.
Wonsan Port (Genzan)
元山港
A major port on Korea's east coast during the Japanese colonial period, Wonsan (Genzan) served as both a commercial hub for Sea of Japan trade and a key Imperial Japanese Navy facility. It was the original home base of the Genzan Naval Air Group (元山海軍航空隊), established in 1940, which conducted some of the war's most consequential naval air operations including the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.