Toyota Immigrant Village (Tobacco Barn) Introduction
Feng Tian, a name filled with charm and flavor. Driving along Provincial Highway No. 9, at the 224-kilometer mark, on the left side (heading east) are three concrete pillars, with the middle one marked Feng Shan. Hanging from the pillar are a wind turbine and a white egret; this is Feng Tian. During the Japanese colonial period, the Governor-General of Taiwan carried out large-scale "immigration policies" in the Hualien and Taitung areas, establishing several significant immigrant villages in eastern Taiwan, such as Yoshino, Feng Tian, Lin Tian, Rui Sui, and Lu Ye. These Japanese immigrants mainly came from rural areas in Japan to create a "Yamato ethnic model village" in eastern Taiwan, leaving a notable impact on the cultural development during Taiwan's Japanese colonial period. The Feng Tian immigrant village is one of the better-preserved sites. In the second year of the Taisho era, Japanese immigrants introduced American yellow tobacco to Yoshino immigrant village and gradually expanded to Feng Tian. In the past, one could gauge a household's wealth just by the number of "tobacco buildings" it had. Although tobacco leaves have declined, the Hiroshima-style and Osaka tobacco buildings still remain, serving as a testament to the past tobacco era and providing a favorable footnote to the immigrant industry during the Japanese colonial period. After Taiwan's retrocession, most residents of the immigrant villages were repatriated to Japan. For over 60 years, these Japanese immigrant villages seemed to have vanished in the river of time, leaving behind only a few old buildings and artifacts that testify to a bygone era. In recent years, with the attention and emphasis from local cultural workers and residents, this long-silent history has gradually become known to the public once more.
