Coconut Bunker Introduction
After 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor prompted the U.S. military to begin retaliatory bombings, targeting Taiwan's important military supply factories, hydroelectric plants, railways, and key offices. The Zhushan County Office was strategically located between two mountains at the entrance of the Zhuoshui River, serving as a forward base for bombing the Jiji railway and Sun Moon Lake reservoir. When the "electric thunder" sounded, the county office staff and surrounding Japanese military and civilians would frantically rush to hide in the air-raid shelter. The air-raid shelter behind the county office, surrounded by dense trees, served as cover from U.S. aircraft. The current site of the air-raid shelter has lost its original function and has been abandoned, with six royal palm trees and phoenix trees growing on top, now serving as earth caves where children play hide and seek. Next to the shelter remains an old dormitory from the Japanese colonial period, as well as the current dormitory for police officers on duty. The design of the shelter's entrance was a pull door instead of a push door because, under normal circumstances, the door opened outward. When the electric thunder sounded, everyone would rush inside, and it was unknown how many people were hiding within. In cases of overcrowding, suffocation was a risk; thus, the design allowed for pulling from the outside, potentially saving those inside from being pushed out in case of an emergency. This risk design was based on experience, as it was believed that more people died from suffocation than from bombing. Another theory suggests that during bombings, the pressure from explosions outside the shelter could be countered by a pull door, which would block the blast and debris from entering.
