National Human Rights Museum - Green Island White Terror Memorial Park Introduction
The "White Terror Green Island Memorial Park" was originally known as the "Green Island Human Rights Cultural Park." It is located at No. 20 Jiangjun Rock, Gongguan Village, Ludao Township, Taitung County, covering an area of approximately 32 hectares, situated at the northeastern corner of Green Island. The park has experienced different periods of prison culture, including the Fire Island Floaters Shelter, the New Life Guidance Institute, and the Oasis Mountain Villa, and it is a site where significant human rights violations took place under an authoritarian government. The architectural group, nature, and ecological landscapes of the park reflect the long-term interaction between humans and nature, combining various forms of cultural assets and landscapes into a cultural landscape. During the Martial Law period, the "White Terror Green Island Memorial Park" served as a detention place for military, political, and public security cases; it was a period of the New Life Guidance Institute from 1951 to 1970 and the Oasis Mountain Villa from 1972 to 1987 (the Ministry of National Defense's reformatory prison period). The Oasis Mountain Villa was built in response to the 1970 Taoyuan Incident as a high-walled closed prison, which significantly differed from the spatial form of the New Life Guidance Institute. The "White Terror Green Island Memorial Park" holds special significance in the history of Taiwanese people's struggle for human rights development. Each era represents its own helplessness and lament, and the memorial park was born during a politically sensitive time, previously used exclusively for the incarceration of political and thought offenders. The "White Terror Green Island Memorial Park" is located in front of Jiangjun Rock in Gongguan Village, Green Island, covering a vast area that includes Jiangjun Rock, the Human Rights Memorial Park, the Oasis Mountain Villa, and the Zhuangqing Camp, among others. Within these, the Oasis Mountain Villa and New Life Guidance Institute were places for reformatory education and ideological transformation. Upon entering the park, one can feel the heavy and oppressive atmosphere of that time, making it an excellent place to understand Taiwan's history of the White Terror and the development of human rights. The Oasis Mountain Villa, which previously served as the National Defense Ministry's Green Island Reformatory Prison, was completed in 1972 and successively housed political offenders from the Taoyuan Prison and various military prisons, fully preserving the towering walls, barbed wire, playground, auditorium, Bagua Building, isolation rooms, and 52 large and small cells of the past. The entrance to the right of the villa is called the Ghost Gate, which was the only way to enter the Oasis Mountain Villa, signifying that the chances of survival were slim. Upon entering the villa, many historical materials related to the White Terror period are displayed; the small prison and the dark, heavy atmosphere remain palpable even years later. The New Life Guidance Institute was established in the early years of the Republic of China (1950) due to overcrowding with political prisoners in prisons throughout Taiwan, with most sent to Green Island for endless labor and ideological transformation, making it the largest labor reform concentration camp. The current New Life Guidance Institute recreates the barracks, classrooms, and kitchens of the past. In the small dormitory (cell), about 120 to 160 people lived, all of whom had to sleep side by side and often found it difficult to turn over, giving a real sense of their discomfort and unfair treatment, with only a brief one-hour period before bedtime to write letters, play chess, or practice the violin or huqin to slightly relieve the burden they bore. The Human Rights Memorial Park features memorial stones and an uneven grassland designed to blend into the ground, representing the dark period and unequal treatment buried beneath. The Human Rights Monument symbolizes the pursuit of freedom from fear in the new era and was particularly commenced on International Human Rights Day in 1999, also known as the "Green Island Tearful Monument." The spiral structure collects rainwater in drainage channels on both sides, flowing into a central point when it rains, resembling tears. Beside it, there is an inscription titled "Tearful Monument," featuring a poignant inscription by renowned writer Bo Yang: "How many mothers cried through the long nights for their children imprisoned on this island during that era." These 28 short characters profoundly express the suffering of that time.
