The origin of “Ankang Reception Center”: an interrogation prison hidden among civilian residences

Established around 1950 and operating until 1958, Dalongdong Interrogation House was located near Baoan Temple on today’s Jiuquan Street, Taipei City (this is yet to be verified). In 1950, the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior (reorganized and renamed the Investigation Bureau of Ministry of Judicial Administration on June 1, 1956) resumed its work in Taipei and was in urgent need of a place to detain prisoners. During the early stages, civilian residences in Dalongdong near Baoan Temple were requisitioned and rebuilt into an interrogation prison.

In the early postwar period in Taiwan, the “Dalongdong Interrogation House” was the place where the Investigation Bureau held and interrogated suspects. In July 1958, a transfer unit named the “First Interrogation House” was established on Wuxing Street, Taipei City (renamed “Sanzhangli Guest House” in April 1967, in operation until 1972). After that, in January 1974, “Ankang Reception Center” was established in Ankeng, Xindian, continuing the bureau’s terrifying interrogation methods and serving as an interrogation prison that detained insurgents.

▲ Dalongdong Baoan Temple in the early postwar period. (Source: National Taiwan Library)

A detention center from which you could hear Taiwanese opera

Situated at the confluence of Tamsui and Keelung River, the development of Dalongdong began very early and has always had Baoan Temple as its religious center. As the victim Guo Zhenkun stated, at the time he was “being kept in an ancient house near Dalongdong Baoan Temple in Taipei City, which from the outside just looks like an old house, it’s nothing like a prison.” This shows that the detention center was hidden among civilian residences and hard to be recognized as the place where the Investigation Bureau interrogated detainees. The detention center had a yard, and all the cell doors were locked only during night time, so prisoners could walk around, wash their clothes and eat in the outside area during day time, as well as use the shared toilets and shower room that were all set outside. Tsai Kuan-yu mentioned that when he was in Dalongdong Interrogation House, Taiwanese opera could be heard being performed in front of the temple, thus inferring it was likely near Baoan Temple. However, the original houses used as the detention center were tore down due to the construction that broadened Jiuquan Street, making the exact location hard to verify.

▲ The possible location of Dalongdong Interrogation House drawn on the basis of the interview with the victim Tsai Kuan-yu. (Source: Concluding Report on the Investigation into Historical Sites Associated with the White Terror Period in Taiwan, National Human Rights Museum, 2015)