Before WWII, Taiwan was a major source of sugar for the Japanese. During WWII, much of this land was converted to rice production.
After the war, much of southern Taiwan returned to sugar cane production with thousands of tons of sugar produced daily.
In the late 1950s, Tom Jones was able to capture some pictures of the railroad line used to transport commodities.
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| Photo courtesy of Tom Jones
We're approaching one of the many stations along the route. There was some disagreement as to this station's name, but it is near Taitung, apparently.
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| Photo courtesy of Tom Jones
The Luye Railroad Station was located on the East Coast.
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| Photo courtesy of Tom Jones
This would be considered a narrow gauge track at the Ping-Lin Railroad Station.
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| Photo courtesy of Tom Jones
With the mist in the background, these two railroad cars are ready for loading. The enclosures might have provided shelter for workers in case of heavy rain.
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| Photo courtesy of Tom Jones
Shown here are workers piling the sugar cane into a railroad car; a warehouse is in the background..
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| Photo courtesy of Marvin Faulkner
In 1968, while stationed near Tsoying, Marvin took this picture near Kaohsiung.
Not only do we see a railroad car, but a locomotive used to transport sugar cane to the factories.
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| Card courtesy of taipics.com
As you can see, some of these sugar cane processing factories were huge and could accommodate many railroad cars.
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| Photo courtesy of taipics.com
A fully loaded railroad car makes its way to a factory.
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>Before WWII, Taiwan was a major source of sugar for the Japanese. During WWII, much of this land was converted to rice production.
ReplyDeleteIt's called "the contradiction relationship between rice and sugar(米糖相剋)" during the Japanese era.
The name of the railroad station is Luye(鹿野). It's very interesting to see there is a little boy among the palm trees in the right of the second photo, who is wearing Japanese-style clothing.
Do you ever get the impresssion that the Japanese occupation of Taiwan was, in many ways, a positive time in the Island's history?
ReplyDeleteMy relatives who lived during that time said it was the worst. Like human torture, and little food. You can't speak for my country.
DeleteJohn, in my mind, it's impossible to say something is definitely 100% positive or negative. Quite a few infrastructures in Taiwan were done under Japanese ruling. Yet more than one hundred thousand soldiers and civilians were killed(or massacred?) during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in 1895.
ReplyDeleteFor the fourth picture，the two cars are so called "caboose-gondola combination(敞守車)." The little wooden shelter is all the place a miserable conductor can get when in duty.
ReplyDelete