In 1949, the Kuomintang army lost the civil war, and a large number of officers, soldiers and public officials evacuated to Taiwan with different local accents. Taiwan's population was 6.1 million in 1946 and surged to 7.45 million in 1950. Almost all of the 1.35 million additional people came from other provinces across the sea. In order to solve their housing problem, the Taiwan authorities built houses on enclosed land on the island. This is the origin of "military village".
The Navy Military Village in Zuoying, Kaohsiung is the largest concentration area for a single military service in Taiwan. It consists of Mingde, Jianye, Hequn, Fuxing and other villages. The day after arriving in Kaohsiung, I went to visit here. After being enthusiastically given directions by local people, I turned from Military Academy Road into Haigong Road and walked for about 5 minutes. Several signs for Mingde New Village appeared in front of me.
Mingde New Village is a senior military dependent village of the navy. It was built during the Japanese occupation. It was once the dormitory for general officers of the 11th Air Fleet of the Japanese Navy. Therefore, the bungalows are mainly Japanese-style buildings with wide courtyards. Each official building The average house size is about 330 square meters to 660 square meters. Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone also lived here.
Therefore, those who can live in Mingde New Village are also senior generals of the Chinese army and navy and their families. It is a veritable general village. It is said that most of them come from Nanjing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Guangzhou and other places.
Although they are not what they used to be, they are all single-family homes. Next to the main door of a house, there are separate doorbells from the 1st to 5th floors.
Looking at the scene in the village from a distance, there are few people there anymore, only vegetation growing wantonly on both sides of the road. In recent years, with the departure of that generation, many military dependent villages in Taiwan have begun to be demolished. However, Mingde New Village, as a "general village", has survived because of its certain significance and the strong initiative of many protectors. down.
In 2010, the Kaohsiung City Government registered the "Zuoying Naval Military Village" as a cultural landscape and began to focus on the development of "military village tourism". At present, there are no signs of major construction in the entire village, and only a few households are being repaired and renovated.
There is a familiar sentence in Lu Xun's article: There are two trees in front of my house, one is a jujube tree and the other is a jujube tree. Although the two trees in this scene are not jujube trees, they remind me of this sentence and I can imagine the exquisiteness and refinement of the independent courtyard life at that time. Nowadays, those of us who live in buildings in the city will no longer have this impression.
A family who still lives here went out to take out the garbage and came back. The vegetation and flower beds at the door were well trimmed.
The posters on the publicity board at the entrance of the village have long faded.
The red door of the former Navy Zuoying Logistics Support Headquarters and the Bid Opening Room of the Naval Combat System Factory. The yard is lined with trees and has a chess and card room, activity room, etc.
On April 1 this year, this place was moved. As the security department of the entire military village, it was the last to leave.
The activity center is empty.
Compared with Mingde New Village, the nearby Fuxing New Village was a resettlement place for ordinary people at that time. Not only was the area small, but the bathrooms, kitchens, and toilets were shared by several families all year round, making the living environment very difficult and embarrassing. Now Mingde New Village has been almost demolished, and there are only a few "nail houses" that have been cut off from water and electricity.
The bulletin board of Fuxing New Village.
A building in the village that has not yet been demolished.
A piece of ceramic tile that has not yet been removed. This should be the living room of a veteran's house back then.
The exterior wall of the kindergarten in Fuxing New Village.
A dilapidated amusement ride.
There is a large playground in Zuoying Military Village. It is now a free place for people from the surrounding areas to come and enjoy running and practicing baseball.
An old man walks hobblingly.
Most of the people who exercise here are middle-aged people, and those who are in a daze are the elderly.
With the relocation, the dogs kept by many residents were not taken away. Over time, the entire military village has become a home for hundreds of stray dogs.
The fitness equipment in the military village is very simple and has the simple style of the former army.
Today, there are not many people living in Zuoying Military Village. An old man set up a KTV stall to earn a few yuan per person, but only one old man is taking care of his business.
As I walked, it was getting dark, and I walked into Jianye New Village, which is adjacent to Mingde New Village. Jianye New Village received more than 20 Japanese-relict houses in 1946. Later, due to the increasing demand for Navy dependents' houses, the Naval Headquarters and the Women's Federation built military dependents' houses in 1959.
The people living in Jianye New Village are mainly naval academy-level cadres. At that time, there were about 550 households and about 1,000 people.
The old man in red looks like a staff member of our neighborhood committee, informing a family still living here about the problem of water and power supply in the next few days.
It was completely dark when we walked out of Zuoying Military Village. Two old people were chatting under the weak street lights.
The Zuoying Military Village was built by the mainland army and civilians. With the departure and demolition of that generation, its former prosperity has faded, but its uniqueness and that time will not fade away and cannot be forgotten. Now we only I can look for that memory from many images and texts. In Zuoying Military Village, I also took dozens of old photos hanging on the wall. I will sort them out as soon as possible and present them to you in the next issue.
