Akitsu Immigrant Village Shinto Shrine

Flood control measures implemented in the Japanese colonial era opened new land for settlement in Changhua, and more than a dozen immigrant villages were established to cultivate it. Akitsu, in what was then Sazan-shō (沙山庄) and is now Fangyuan, was the earliest Japanese immigrant village in Taichū Prefecture, founded in 1932 with settlers predominantly from Kyushu. Originally called Sazan Village (沙山村), it was renamed Akitsu in August 1936 by Governor-General Nakagawa Kenzō (中川健藏) and grew to nearly 800 residents, all of whom were repatriated after the war. The village is known to have had a Shinto shrine, although the location is unknown and no trace remains of the settlement except the positioning of streets in some parts of this remote countryside.