Draft:The Original Ministry of Justice, Department of Administration, Investigation Bureau, Ankang Reception room

Originally known as the Ministry of Justice, Department of Administration, Investigation Bureau, Ankang Reception room was established in 1974, which served as a location to interrogate and confine political criminals, disciplinary offenders, and criminals who committed major crimes during Taiwan’s White Terror period. The reception room’s current address is No. 12, Shuang-cheng Road, Xindian District, New Taipei City, which is situated at the intersection of Shuang-cheng road and Yuhe Street. Nowadays, the reception room belongs to the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, and had detained a number of political criminals, such as Chang Chun-Hung, Chen Chu, Yao Chia-Wen, and more. After martial law was lifted in the Taiwan province in May 1987, the Ankang Reception room had since stopped its detention and interrogation, and the Investigation Bureau had since transferred its base to Tucheng Detention Center.

History

Investigation Bureau and Detention Room

In 1927, the Kuomingtang Central Committee started “purging” the party in order to suppress any development or activities coming from China’s Communist party. Kuomingtang had also established a specialized institution to fight against any possible infiltration from the Communist party. In March 1928, Kuomingtang set up an “Investigation Section” under the party and appointed Chen Lifu as the director. Under said section, a team of special agents was also founded to be responsible for investigating within and beyond the political party, collecting data from the Chinese Communists, and inspecting underground organizations’ activities. In September 1932, to prevent the Investigation Section’s responsibilities from conflicting with those of the Revitalizing Community, the National Government Intelligence Bureau of the Military Commission was therefore established, which assigned its primary section to take care of affairs in the party, largely hiring members from the Investigation Section, which built up double identities for said members––as both investigators and party members. In February 1935, the Military Commission redrafted its institution principles, converting the name of the Intelligence Bureau as “Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.” In December in the same year, Kuomingtang began its party restructuring and set up an Organization Department under the Central Committee, and founded 6 different sections for party affairs investigation. The Party Affairs Investigation Department consisted of members who belonged to the Investigation Section, which were in charge of inspections of the party affairs, contained anti-government forces, and more. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, in order to respond to the wartime system, the national government, over and over, altered and strengthened its intelligence agency. In 1938, a “Bureau of Investigation and Statistics'' was set up under Kuomingtang Central Committee’s Secretariat, and members of said Bureau were primarily consisted of staff members from the Party Affairs Investigation Department, which was also named “Central Statistics.” The labor of Central Statistics was mainly focusing on fighting the war against the Japanese, at the same time suppressing Communist activities that arose in different parts of China, investigating party affairs and economics, so as to provide useful information for the Kuomingtang authorities.

In 1946, to adapt to the new constitutional system and the Communist party’s requests for “canceling special missions,” Kuomingtang began to negotiate policy reforms. Therefore, in April 1947, the Kuomingtang removed Central Statistics and established a “Party Members Communication Bureau”, so as to continue tasks that once belonged to Central Statistics. Once the new constitutional system began operating, to take relevant policies and governance work into consideration, the party therefore institutionalized the Party Members Communication Bureau. Kuomingtang also referenced the structure of institutions from both the United States and the Soviet Union, then founded an “Investigation Bureau.” After long discussions at the Legislative Yuan, the Investigation Bureau became affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior. In 1949, the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior was established in Guangzhou and made staff members who once worked at the Party Members Communication Bureau its main staff. However, the operation of the Party Members Communication Bureau didn’t officially terminate until March, 1950. After the establishment of the Investigation Bureau, Taiwan Province office and Southwestern office were also founded in order to fight against communist activities. Following the setback from the Chinese Civil War, the government of the Republic of China migrated to Taiwan in 1949, which made the Investigation Bureau gain its importance. Apart from increasing inspection and counterintelligence work, Kuomingtang transformed Taiwan Province Bureau into Taiwan Province Investigation Bureau, and also established Investigation Centers in each county and city across the island.

Afterward, to respond to the reform and changes of work distribution, at the same time outline professional responsibilities from different government institutions, a National Defense Conference was initiated in 1954. In 1955, the National Security Bureau was established, and government responsibilities of the Ministry of National Defense Intelligence Bureau and Ministry of Interior’s Investigation Bureau were made visible. After work distribution, the Investigation Bureau was then assigned to the Ministry of Justice and Administration, and therefore gained responsibilities from the judicial police and the rights to proceed further investigation. The Investigation Bureau was then taking charge of governing domestic investigations, national confidentiality, espionage prevention, economic crimes, and more. In 1980, the Republic of China began to push forward a reform, marking the division of responsibilities between judicial judges and prosecutors, at the same time making the court system that once belonged to the Ministry of Justice and Administration become a part of the National Judicial Yuan, which fulfilled the requirement of Constitutional Court Interpretation No.86. Later on, the Ministry of Justice and Administration became the Ministry of Justice, the Investigation Bureau was therefore changed into the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau.

The interrogation space of the Investigation Bureau was a location for the staff members to detain, investigate, and interrogate detainees. In 1950, after the Investigation Bureau migrated to Taiwan, there was a need for a space to detain criminals in Taipei, and therefore, the officials requisitioned a residential house next to the Dalongdong Baoan Temple, and converted it to an “Interrogation room” for relevant investigation. According to the detainees’ memories from that time, “The place didn’t resemble a cell at all, it looked simply like an old house.” Moreover, the place was hidden among other residential houses. The Dalongdong Interrogation room’s exact location was speculated to be one of the old houses at the intersection between Jiuquan Street and Dalong Street nowadays. However, due to Jiuquan Street being expanded, the old remains of the interrogation room no longer exist. In July 1958, under the approval of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office, the Investigation Bureau established a “Judicial Yuan Administrative Section Investigation Bureau’s First Interrogation Room”, so as to continue the tasks of the Dalongdong Interrogation Room on Alley 13, Keelung Road Section 2, Taipei City (Known as Lane 1, Alley 361, Wuxing Street, Taipei City today). The First Interrogation Room was known for its cruel management and torturing back in the 1960s, where the officials interrogated rebels and other criminals captured. In April 1967, according to the redacted Law of Criminal Procedure, the First Interrogation Room was converted as “Sanzhangli Guest House”. The fact that Sangzhangli neighborhood had been constructing new residential buildings at the beginning of 1970s, the secrecy of Sangzhangli Guest House was therefore complicated, and therefore, the Investigation Bureau had to be relocated. At a remote area in Xindian’s Ankeng neighborhood (today’s No.12, Shuangcheng Road, Xindian District, New Taipei City), “Ankang Reception Room” was established. The place had started to be constructed in 1973 and officially started operating on January 8th, 1974. Ankang Reception Room had become a major investigation location for the Investigation Bureau between the 1970s and 1980s. Sanzhangli Guest House was terminated, and the old house that once existed was also removed.

Reception Room

The Ankang Reception Room was a shared space for the Justice Yuan’s Administrative Section Investigation Bureau and the Taiwan Garrison Command (known as Garrison Command)’s Military Justice Department. According to an interview with the Executive Director of the Investigation Bureau Wang Guan-Yu, when the Reception Room was constructed, the license was applied with the Garrison Command’s official title, however, the institution that used the space remained the Investigation Bureau, and the staff members were also managed by the Investigation Bureau. The Garrison Command only assigned a Communication Officer to be in touch when necessary, and there was nobody from the Garrison Command who was stationed at the Reception Room. The main operating unit was the Investigation Bureau’s Third Department and Inspection Department, which were responsible for political sensitivity and criminal prevention. The said departments detained and interrogated captured criminals, did pre-trial reviews for cases that were forwarded to Military Justice institutions for further investigation. According to a few detainees’ recollections, the staff members from the Investigation Bureau cut the detainees’ contacts with their families or defenders, and constantly tortured them during the confinement and interrogation period. Moreover, there were issues of lack of food, medical resources, good sanitary conditions, and more, which all violated the detainees’ health.

The most well-known political incident that was connected to the Ankang Reception Room was the Kaohsiung Incident that took place in 1979. At the time, the National Security Bureau established “Anhe Project”, commanding the Investigation Bureau, Garrison Command, National Police Agency, and more. In total, there were four different sections that were in charge of interrogation, and one of the major sites was established at the Ankang Reception Room. The interrogation was taken charge by the Interrogation Bureau, which investigated Huang Hsin-Chieh, Yao Chia-Wen, Chen Chu, Shih Ming-Teh, Chen Chung-Hsin, Chang Chun-Hung, Su Ching-Li, Wang Tuoh, Chou Ping-Teh, Lin Hung-Hsuan, Tsai You-Chuan, and 11 more people. Due to the amount of attention the Kaohsiung Incident had brought to the entire country, the Garrison Command also assigned a few more staff members to support the investigation.

In May, 1987, after martial law was lifted in Taiwan Province, the procedures of detaining criminals had resumed to the standard criminal laws. The Ankang Reception Room had therefore stopped detaining and interrogating any criminal. The Investigation Bureau had then changed its base to Tucheng Detention Center, moving their staff members to support the Tucheng location, but kept the security guards in the original location, so as to maintain safety for the site since it contained an ammunition depot. Afterward, the existing architecture began to grow old, started having serious leaking issues, and therefore was no longer appropriate to be used as an office. The Investigation Bureau then converted the space to a storage and had lent the space to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for them to preserve specimens. In 2018, after the foundation of the Transitional Justice Commission, the Commission initiated a number of interviews about the Ankang Reception Room and had negotiated to preserve the site. In January, 2022, Ankang Reception Room was officially considered a “site of injustice.” Taiwan’s Executive Yuan had finalized their decision to “design and include Ankang Reception Room as part of National Human Rights Museum’s Jingmei White Terror Memorial Park,” so as to create a base to fulfill transitional justice and advocate for human rights education. In the meanwhile, in September, 2021, citizens had proposed to the government to include Ankang Reception Room as an official historical site. After New Taipei City’s Cultural Affairs Bureau’s investigations, the site was officially included in the records in November in the same year. On November 22nd, 2022, the Reception Room was listed as a “temporary historical site”; On December 23rd, the New Taipei City’s Cultural Affairs Bureau officially finalized the Reception Room as a municipal historical site.

Architectural Space and Management

To take over major tasks from Sanzhangli Guest House, the Ankang Reception Room was situated at the intersection between Shuangcheng Road and Yuhe Street at Ankeng area, Xindian District in New Taipei City today, Before the Investigation Bureau acquired the land, the location was owned by the Liao family who resided in the same area. The land was a patch of farmland with shallow hills, which primarily fostered tea leaves and camphor. The patch of land appeared slightly in T shape, and the total area covered 16,894.96 square meters. The architectures were located at a patch of flat land surrounded by the hills from the back, and covered 1,478 square meters. The area was divided into four parts, from the West to the East were “Living Zone” (89.1ping), “Working Zone” (142 ping), “Recuperation Zone” (176 ping), and “Dormitory Zone” (40 ping), and each architecture was a house with one single floor. Within this area were two sentry towers, one located on the wall of the mountain at the south side, the other one was situated at Recuperation Zone’s border area at the Northeast. Besides these places, the area was equipped with an ammunition room. If one were to enter the area with architectures from the bottom of the mountain to the main gate, one had to pass by a long, slopey path with dense, lush forests, which protected the area and had remained a level of secrecy.

The Working Zone and Recuperation Zone are the most essential spaces for Ankang Reception Room’s investigation and interrogation. These zones were situated at the central part of the area. The Working Zone was primarily used for Investigation Bureau’s relevant investigations, and some of these spaces were used for questioning. The shape of the architecture appeared as a 回 character, with 12 interrogation rooms at the external circle (2 big rooms and 10 smaller rooms), 2 special reception rooms, conference room, and resting room; the internal circle included reading room, recording studio, offices, and more, which were staff members’ working and resting spaces. The Recuperation Zone was a detention space with cells, the shape of the architecture resembled a cross, and included single rooms and mixed rooms. There were a total of 31 cells (9 big rooms and 22 small rooms), and the area was equipped with a Security Guard Room, warehouses, and more. Two sentry towers were located at the surrounding area, and the area was isolated from the outside world by high walls and wire nets. The Living Zone and Dormitory Zone were located at two sides of the Working Zone and Recuperation Zone, which were part of the accessory buildings. The Living Zone included 7 bedrooms for male and female separately, dining area, recreation room, nursing room, and kitchen; the Dormitory Zone had two living spaces, which included a two bedrooms, one living room, one bedroom space and a three bedrooms, one living room, one bedroom space. Nowadays, the division of the interior spaces at these architectures had already been transformed.

The way the Ankang Reception Room managed spaces was by arranging the four architectures considering the land’s terrain height. The cells’ Recuperation Zone was at a lower space, and therefore, the ones who were interrogated at the Working Zone would have to walk down the stairs, traversing through tunnels to reach the Recuperation Zone. Such a space arrangement would easily confuse the sense of place for the detainees, making them think that they were confined in a basement at the Working Zone. Moreover, the detainees overwent sweatbox and were cut out of touch from the outside world; the cells’ lights were fully lit, making the detainees lose a sense of time. At the same time, even though all the rooms here were covered with soundproof foams, electric wires, recording devices, and other surveillance equipment were hidden behind the walls. Each door had a semi-curvy “cat eye” for the staff members of the Investigation Bureau to monitor the detainees. All of these designs, which enabled shading, soundproofing, eavesdropping, and watching, often caused psychological distress for the detainees and had emotionally intimidated them all.