Draft:Taipei Bridge Detention Center, Counterintelligence Bureau Ministry of National Defense

The Taipei Bridge Detention Center of the Ministry of National Defense, known as "North Center," was also identified as the Takasago Iron Works or sarcastically called “Northern Sea University”. It was situated at No.46 Yining Street, Datong District, Taipei City. It had served as the central facility for the Ministry of National Defense’s Detention Center since around 1950. In approximately 1956, due to the building’s deteriorating conditions, the central facility was relocated to the South Center. Although in the 1970s, the primary building of the facility underwent a gradual transformation into mixed-use commercial and residential premises, there are no remaining structures at the current address.

History

In 1931, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the establishment of a secret organization called the "Fuxing Society." In March of the following year, the Fuxing Society was officially inaugurated, and a Secret Service Office was set up with Dai Li serving as the director. In September 1932, the Nationalist Government established the Investigation and Statistics Bureau, affiliated to the Military Affairs Committee, leading to the reorganization of the Secret Service Office into the Second Section under the Investigation and Statistics Bureau. In August 1938, the First Section expanded and restructured into the Central Bureau of Statistics (Central Bureau), while the Second Section became in charge of the entire Investigation and Statistics Bureau(Military Bureau). In 1946, the Military Affairs Committee was restructured into the Ministry of National Defense, and the Military Bureau was subsequently reorganized into the Counterintelligence Bureau.

In 1949, following the government's relocation to Taiwan, the main organization of the Military Bureau of Statistics also moved to Taiwan. In September, the Counterintelligence Bureau set up its headquarters at Zhishanyan in Shilin Town, Taipei City, performing functions related to domestic security and intelligence gathering. It played a leading role in investigating and interrogating numerous major political cases. In 1955, the formation of the National Security Bureau led to a reassignment of roles among intelligence agencies, and the Counterintelligence Bureau was restructured into the Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, while security and investigative tasks were transferred to the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.

The predecessor of the buildings at Taipei Bridge Detention Center was the Takasago Iron Works, owned by the Gu family in Lukang during the Japanese colonial period. In 1917 (the 6th year of Taisho Era), the Gu family established the Takasago Foundry Co., Ltd. in Taipingding, Taipei City, with Gu Xian-rong serving as the president. In 1937 (the 12th year of the Showa Era), his daughter-in-law Gu-Yen Bi-hsia began to be in charge of the management of the business. In 1941 (the 16th year of the Showa Era), it was renamed the Takasago Iron Works Co., Ltd. In 1950, Gu-Yen Bi-hsia was accused of providing financial aid and sheltering the pro-communist writer Lu Ho-ruo, resulting in her detention on charges of "accomplice of espionage." In January 1951, she was sentenced, and her property was confiscated.

After the Counterintelligence Bureau's relocation to Taiwan in 1949, it became one of the main units investigating political cases. In the early stages, detainees were held and interrogated at the Taipei Detention Center (South Center). As the number of detainees increased, the Wuchang Street Branch of the detention center was employed, and later, the space for interrogating and detaining political prisoners was further expanded by repurposing the Takasago Iron Works, commonly known by political prisoners as the North Center.

Given the increased capacity, the Taipei Bridge Detention Center was designated as the central facility for the function of detention by the Counterintelligence Bureau from around May 1950. The South Center became a branch, and the Wenchang Street Branch was shut down. Around 1955-1956, as the deteriorating buildings of the North Center had gone beyond restoration, the central facility was relocated to the South Center again.

The Taipei Bridge Detention Center was approximately located at Today’s No. 46 Yining Street. The factory area of the Takasago Iron Works covered an area roughly east of Section 3rd, Yanping North Road, south of Yining Street, west of Daojian High School of Commerce, and north of Lane 17, Section 3rd, Yanping North Road. From 1956 onwards, there were records of private land transactions within the original site of the Takasago Iron Works. In the 1970s, the main buildings were gradually transformed into mixed-use commercial and residential premises, however, there are no remaining structures at the current address.

Spatiality

The Taipei Bridge Detention Center was divided into two rows of detention rooms by wooden fences, with wooden panels separating the rooms and wooden floors elevated approximately 30 centimeters above the ground. There were a total of 20 detention rooms, including two specifically designated for female inmates. Each detention room was 8 meters long and 3 meters wide, approximately 24 square meters in size, accommodating about 23-24 inmates. In the end of each room, a toilet was for all the inmates' use. All the rooms were devoid of sunlight, remaining damp throughout the year.

Inmates were provided only two meals a day, and the food usually was thin rice porridge with peanuts in the morning and rice with pickled vegetables and wax gourd soup in the afternoon. Although the space in the North Center was more spacious than the South Center, and access to water was more convenient, the humidity, lack of sunlight, and poor nutrition resulted in edema among the inmates. For instance, in June 1950, due to the heat and overcrowding, diseases were rampant, and inmate Chang Huan-zhen died from dysentery.

Moreover, the interrogation methods at the North Center were as cruel as those at the South Center. Some victims described it as a "place where people go in but never come out." Some detainees were even handled secretly. There were stories that at night, women's wails, children's cries, and miserable screams under torture keeping inmates awake all night.