National Human Rights Museum - White Terror Memorial Park on Green Island Introduction
The "White Terror Memorial Park in Green Island" was originally known as the "Green Island Human Rights Cultural Park." It is located at No. 20, Jiangjun Rock, Gongguan Village, Green Island Township, Taitung County, covering an area of approximately 32 hectares, situated at the northeastern corner of Green Island. The park has undergone various phases of prison culture, including the Fire Island Refugee Center, the New Life Reformatory, and the Oasis Villa, and is a site where significant human rights violations were perpetrated by an authoritarian government. The architectural group of the entire park, along with its natural and ecological landscapes, reflects the long-term interaction between people and nature, combining various forms of cultural heritage and landscapes into a cultural landscape. During the martial law period, the "White Terror Memorial Park in Green Island" served as a detention place for military, political, and public security cases; from 1951 to 1970, it was the period of the New Life Reformatory, and from 1972 to 1987, it was the period of the Oasis Villa (the Ministry of National Defense's correctional facility). The Oasis Villa was constructed in response to the 1970 Taiyuan Incident, and its enclosed prison structure is significantly different from that of the New Life Reformatory. The "White Terror Memorial Park in Green Island" holds special significance in the history of the Taiwanese people's struggle for human rights development. Each era carries its own frustrations and lamentations, and the park emerged during a politically sensitive time, previously used exclusively for the confinement of political prisoners and intellectual dissenters. Located at the Jiangjun Rock in Gongguan Village on Green Island, the park covers a vast area, including Jiangjun Rock, the Human Rights Memorial Park, the Oasis Villa, and the Zhuangjing Camp. Among these, the Oasis Villa and the New Life Reformatory were places of reformatory education and ideological transformation. Upon entering the park, one can deeply feel the heavy and oppressive atmosphere, making it a great place to understand the history of Taiwan's past white terror and human rights development. The Oasis Villa, formerly the Green Island Correctional Facility of the Ministry of National Defense, was completed in 1972 and gradually housed political prisoners relocated from the Taiyuan Prison and various military prisons, fully retaining the once towering walls, barbed wire, playground, auditorium, octagonal building, isolation rooms, and 52 cells of various sizes. To the right of the entrance named "Ghost Gate" before the Oasis Villa, it was originally a must-pass for entering the villa, symbolizing a bleak chance of survival after passing through. Walking into the Oasis Villa, many historical materials related to the white terror period are displayed. The narrow prison corridors and dark, heavy atmosphere still linger, evoking a sense of the past that remains palpable many years later. Established in the early 39th year of the Republic of China (1950), the New Life Reformatory became the largest labor reform concentration camp due to overcrowding of political prisoners in prisons across Taiwan, where most were sent to Green Island for endless labor and ideological transformation. The present New Life Reformatory recreates the old barracks, classroom areas, kitchens, etc. Upon entering the rooms, realistic wax figures can be seen, and the small sleeping quarters (cells) housed about 120 to 160 people, where everyone had to sleep stacked side by side and found it difficult to turn, allowing a real sense of their discomfort and unfair treatment at that time. They could only use the brief one-hour before bedtime to write letters, play chess, or practice the violin or Huqin, slightly releasing the pressure they endured. The Human Rights Memorial Park features a monument and an uneven grassland designed to submerge underground, representing the dark period of being buried beneath and experiencing inequality back then. The Human Rights Monument symbolizes the pursuit of freedom from fear in the new era, and construction began on December 10, 1999, International Human Rights Day. It is also referred to as the "Tears of Green Island Monument," where the spiral structure gathers rainwater from the gutters on both sides into the center point when it rains, resembling tears. The nearby inscription is named: "Tears Monument," featuring an inscription by the famous writer Bo Yang: "In that era, how many mothers cried through the long nights for their children imprisoned on this island." Just 28 concise characters encapsulate the sufferings of that time.
