Guandu Shinyo Base

Three tunnels were hand-cut into the hillside beside Guandu Temple in Beitou to shelter shinyo (suicide boats) in the final months of World War 2. The boats arrived by rail at Tamsui in February 1945 and were taken upstream to the base in Guandu (關渡), then known as Kautau (江頭), where three squads of eight special attack soldiers were stationed. Two squadrons were assigned to the base, the 102nd and the 105th (第102、105隊震洋隊), the latter counting among its ranks Taiwanese recruits trained at the Zuoying IJN base, though whether they enlisted or were conscripted is unclear. The unit carried out only one mission and suffered no casualties; Japan surrendered before any of Taiwan’s shinyo squadrons went into action. Japanese records placed the Taipei base at Tamsui until a Control Yuan (監察院) investigation identified this site in Guandu in 2012; two of the tunnels are now sealed and the third retains its rough hand-cut walls.