In a quiet riverside farmland on the outskirts of Yilan county in Taiwan, a full-scale bamboo model of a Japanese World War II fighter plane — the infamous Zero — sits atop an arched concrete structure.
The site, now known as the Siyuan Aircraft Bunker, is one of at least 20 such bunkers that remain scattered in and around the island’s Pacific-facing county, which today is just a 40-minute drive from Taipei. They form the largest concentration in Taiwan and are among the best-preserved examples still remaining anywhere.
“The Japanese military built an airport here for their kamikazes in 1944,” 79-year-old local volunteer tour guide Wu Jian-hsing said, referring to the country’s suicide attack pilots during the war. “By then it was very urgent, so they built the runway in just six months, but the soft ground next to the river was not very good.”
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