Summary of prison establishment affairs II
- Publication Date :
- Last updated:2023-01-16
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There was not electricity and water on Green Island then. The resource of water came from a well beside Nanliao Police Station dug during the Japanese reign. The water from the well was clean and sufficient for residents in Nanliao and Chongliao Village. Only 1-2 local households had small generators. The rest families used candles. The electricity in the military command post had its own generator. Their water resource came from the natural spring in Liumagou. The prison also had a generator providing power for the project. The water came from the seven wells dug by contractors from Taitung. However, five of them were dry wells. Only two wells offered water. One well is located at the exit beside the second dormitory. The water was clean and sufficient so a water tower with enhanced groundwork was established here for providing drinking water for workers and criminals. The other well was located in front of warden's dormitory. The water was insufficient so they took water with hand pump.
The stone and sand for the basic construction materials were locally collected from the present location of the grand assembly hall (it was a sandy land then). A sand dune was bought along the road for application. There were few crushed stones along the coral coast of Green Island. The only crushed stones were seen at the harbor but it was forbidden to dig. Employees had no choice but digging rocks from the mountain wall behind the site and crushing them into small stones with hammers. They crushed these small stones with the stone crusher for construction materials.
Heavy construction materials such as bricks (60,000 pieces) and steel bars (300 tons) were transported by the military wooden ship "Jin Xing Fu." However, there was no large and deep harbor at Green Island. Therefore, these heavy construction materials got aboard at Taitung Shinggang Harbor. The ship stopped on the sea around Green Island and workers transported these materials to the coast by sampan. Workers, criminals, employees, and Warden Zhang Jian-jin stood in a line and passed these materials hand by hand to the island. These materials were transported back to the site by the three-wheeled cart. It was another proof of the hardship for the project. Besides, during the transportation process, the sampan was overturned by the wave and a bundle of steel bars fell into the sea. Luckily, they were found by the reflection of the sunshine when the weather became sunny.
During the establishing period, the weather was not stable in Green Island. The sunshine was sharp and the north-western rain was heavy in summers. The north-eastern monsoon blew and the weather was irregularly cloudy and rainy in winters. The project depended on the weather so the difficulty of construction was enhanced and the working period was also influenced. A super typhoon attacked Green Island at night. Fortunately, it came in the initial period so the damage was limited. The erected steel bars were blown down. The steel plate used for mixing cement was blown 200 meters away the site. No serious damages were caused by the typhoon.