Rende Shuaijun Temple

A small shrine beside Sanyegong Creek (三爺宮溪) in the Tuku area of Rende, enshrining fourteen Japanese airmen as deified marshals (元帥). Their plane ran out of fuel just after Japan’s 1945 surrender, and the crew is said to have steered it away from the village before crashing, killing all aboard. Local residents enshrined them decades later, after the restless spirits were blamed for local misfortune. Statues were carved only for the leaders Yamamoto (山本元帥) and Tatsuta (龍田元帥), with the Twelve Marshals (十二元帥) on tablets, their gilded images wearing a Taiwanese royal lord’s cap (王爺) over a Japanese moustache. Known as the Red Army Temple (紅軍廟) for the red marshal of Chinese chess, it is paired with a Black Army Temple (黑軍廟) to the east, the two facing off across the countryside like pieces on a board.