Green Island Human Rights Culture Park

Prison interior Shin Yu Pai (Atlas Obscura User)

This human rights museum and memorial park in Green Island, Taitung County, Taiwan, was created to commemorate the victims of political oppression imprisoned during the White Terror, a period of martial law that lasted 40 years.

From 1947 to 1987, tens of thousands of political dissidents were imprisoned by the Chinese Nationalist Party. From the 1950s, many were sent to Green Island, where the prisoners at the New Life Correction Center were set to hard labor, building their prison. A second prison, Oasis Villa, was built in the 1970s. The two prisons symbolize the political suppression during that period in Taiwan.

Today the two former prisons house a museum commemorating the hardship and oppression endured by prisoners on the island. The memorial park stands on a cliff face nearby.

Know Before You Go

Green Island can be accessed by boat or plane. Admission is free. Hours are 9 am to 5 pm daily, except October to April, when the museum is closed on Mondays.