Shitouying Solar Power Struggle 01"Important WWII military site destroyed for solar power? Locals angrily accuse Pingtung County Government of shielding developers, severely damaging historical assets
The Shitouying Fortress in Fangliao, Pingtung, is a military site built by the Japanese army during World War II to guard against Allied landings. In September last year, controversy erupted over solar power development destroying the site. Cultural heritage preservation advocates harshly criticized that after the controversy broke out, the Pingtung County Government failed to designate the site as a provisional historic monument under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act to order the developer to halt work, instead condoning the developer's continued construction. With such a valuable site being destroyed, the Pingtung County Government cannot escape responsibility.
The project owner is Shengli Energy, a subsidiary of Xingyao Energy. Xingyao Energy was originally the solar business division of AU Optronics (AUO), and was further established through investment by Taiwan Life Insurance under Fubon Financial Holdings and CTBC Financial Holding. Cultural heritage advocates angrily pointed out that the Pingtung County Government and the developer were playing a duet to stall for time. The company claimed externally that work had stopped, but in reality the first-phase solar panels at the site were almost fully installed. Now with the second and third phases of development underway, if not stopped in time, it will cause a catastrophe for cultural heritage.
Local Pingtung County Councilor Chiang Yueh-hui angrily denounced that AU Optronics and Xingyao Energy are using investors' and policyholders' money to "clear mountains to plant solar panels and destroy cultural heritage," showing a complete lack of corporate social responsibility awareness. She will unite relevant groups to launch a consumer movement to boycott AU Optronics and related enterprises such as Fubon and CTBC.
Shitouying was a Japanese military fortress, bearing witness to Taiwan's WWII history
"Shitouying" is located on the north side of Fangliao Township. The name comes from a Qing Dynasty military garrison camp. Shitouying was the starting point of the Jinshuiying Ancient Trail, which the Qing court opened after the Mudan Incident to strengthen its administration of the east.
In the late stages of WWII, with Japan's defeat already inevitable, the Allies sought a springboard to attack the Japanese mainland, cut off Taiwan's food supply and the umbilical cord to South Seas resources, and formulated the "Plan Causeway," planning to land at Fangliao in Taiwan. To prevent the Allied landing, the Japanese military concentrated heavy forces, with garrison troops across the island once reaching over 200,000. According to historical documents, the Japanese 50th Division was ordered to relocate to Fangliao and urgently construct fortress fortifications there. Because it was adjacent to Shitouying, the fortress took its name.
The Shitouying Fortress built by the Japanese military covers 103 hectares, with 36 machine gun bunkers and 10 artillery positions, filled with a dense network of tunnels. It bears witness to Taiwan's experience under the Japanese "fortress-ization of the entire island" strategy and, like Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Peleliu, played a key role on the stage of WWII history.
Retired intelligence officer Lin Hsuan-yao transforms into an underground explorer, and the sleeping fortress sees the light of day again
After WWII, the Nationalist army took over Shitouying Fortress. During the Cold War, the fortress became a Nationalist military base. Later, after democratization and the easing of cross-strait tensions, the military decommissioned the fortress in 2005. After history shifted tracks, Shitouying Fortress was sealed in dust and forgotten.
In the summer of 2016, military researcher Lin Hsuan-yao, a Hakka from Neipu, re-explored Shitouying Fortress amid overgrown wilderness. Since the various positions within the fortress were connected by tunnels and had long been in disrepair, many sections of the underground tunnels had collapsed, posing a certain degree of danger.
Actually entering the underground tunnels of the fortress, the air is thin and filled with dust. One must stoop to pass through to avoid hitting rocks. Bats fly back and forth in the caves from time to time, and the tunnels twist and turn left and right. One wrong step and you could get lost. Pile driving by the solar power plant nearby makes the risk of tunnel collapse even more worrying, and every step is taken with trepidation.
Lin Hsuan-yao threw himself into Shitouying entirely, unable to pull himself away. Whenever he had time, he would drive south from Taipei alone to explore, conducting research for as long as four years without resources, and he knows the fortress inside out. Asked why he persisted, he said, "It's as if fate was destined all along. It's as if Shitouying foresaw it would face calamity and called me to help, to let the outside world understand the importance of Shitouying."
Lin Hsuan-yao revealed that perhaps it was the military intuition of a retired captain intelligence officer. As he shuttled between tunnels and positions exploring, it was as if he were on the battlefield itself. The impact of being at the historical scene made him feel "as if traveling through time and space, back to 1944 in the Pacific War."
Through Japanese military documents and the maps and records taken over by the Nationalist army, Lin Hsuan-yao saw Taiwan's important position in Pacific War history and pieced together the full picture of Shitouying's history step by step. He brought out the defensive deployment plan recorded by Japanese military staff: "In response to the Allies landing at Fangliao, the entire division of 28,000 officers and soldiers was deployed with their backs to Dawu Mountain, overlooking the Pingtung Plain. After the war began, the division had to resist for more than a year, so fortifications were dug into the mountain to face the foreseeable naval bombardment and air raids."
"The natural landscape around the fortress and the thorny bamboo forest were all cover deliberately set up by the Japanese military, and they are part of the overall landscape. After the surrounding environment is developed, what meaning is there in leaving only reinforced concrete bunkers?" Lin Hsuan-yao argued repeatedly and forcefully, demanding a full halt to work, but received no concrete response from the county government. Within half a year, the developer continued developing. In response, he said with deep anguish, "This is real history. If it is destroyed, how will we face the next generation?"
