Central Park to anyone stationed in Taiwan, was renamed 228 Peace Park in 1996.
Here is a map showing the location of the park, northeast of the Presidential Office Building. Located in the park, is the National Taiwan Museum, not to be confused with the National Palace Museum, the large museum of Taiwan.
This bust of General Claire Lee Chennault was located in the park when this photograph was taken by Jim Caumo in 1964.Can someone familiar with park as it stands today let us know if General Chennault's Bust and the description plaque are still standing in the 228 Park today.
Later this week, I will post a series of photographs of the park as it looked in the 1950's and 1960's
UPDATE:
My friend Hank, who lives in Illinois sent in details on General Chennault's statue:
The bust was removed from the park in 2006 and placed in the Hualien Air Force Base Museum. On Google Earth use these coordinates: 24.035071 121.592764
Hualien (Cha Shan) Air Base now houses the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing (401聯隊) flying F-16A/B. This unit was associated with the Chinese American Composite Wing CACW, which General Chennault was involved with during World War II. The museum is not open to civilians except during Open House which occurred earlier the summer.
General Chennault was quite a fellow. This web site was interesting.
I now realize that I have not even scratched the surface of WW II and the Chinese/American joint war effort against the Japanese in CHINA.
This cooperation effort was tremendous and I am sure this was one of the reasons we who served in Taiwan were so welcomed and enjoyed the response we encountered everywhere! Your ideas on this?
Note: I have seen Hualien referred to as Air Base and Air Force Base. Does anyone know the correct terminology for Hualien?
Kent
PS... Good News here:
2nd Update: Sunday, 5 October:
In an e-mail from MND, the correct designation of Hualien is "Air Base."
2 comments:
Hualien is not an air base, it's a county on the east coast of the island. There is a secret Chia-shan air base in Hualien, rumours said the jet fighters fly in and out over the cliff off the pacific ocean, but I've never been to that base.
This is an interesting piece of info. Thanks for sharing and finding out. I am gobsmacked to think that the airforce classify their bases as AB's. I guess they probably still think their AFB is in mainland china.
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