Green Jail | Taiwanese Community Center-Houston
Date:7/19 13:30
Once known in history as the “Green Prison,” the Iriomote Mines are now overgrown with weeds, shrouded in silence. Before the war, Iriomote Island—located on the remote edge of Okinawa—was infamous as a mining island under the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Miners from Kyushu, Okinawa, and colonial territories such as Taiwan and Korea lived harsh lives under oppressive management on this tropical island.
Ryoko Hashima, born in Xiao Jilong, Taiwan (now Sanzhi District, New Taipei City), was brought to the island at the age of 10 by her adoptive father, who worked as a labor recruiter. Now in her 90s, Grandma Hashima lives alone, guarding these long-held secrets and the graves of her adoptive parents.
What really happened in those mines? Her adoptive father, Yang Tianfu, recruited countless Taiwanese miners to the “Green Prison.” What role did he play in this murky and elusive chapter of history?
Films screened
Green Jail
The Iriomote coal mine, once known as the "green jail", is now overgrown and silent. Before the war, Iriomote Island on the edge of Okinawa was a notoriously harsh mining island under imperial Japan, where miners from Kyushu, Okinawa and the colonies of Taiwan and Korea lived under severe control on a tropical island. Hashima Yoshiko, born in Shiaokeelung (today's Sanzhi, New Taipei), was brought to the island at ten by an adoptive father who worked as a labour recruiter. Now past ninety, she keeps these secrets alone, and keeps her adoptive parents' graves. What happened inside the mine? Her adoptive father, Yang Tianfu, brought countless Taiwanese miners to the "green jail" — what part did he play in this murky history? Filming the last years of her life, in her solitude and her monologues, the film finds a memory from an age of collective madness that she does not wish to revisit, and a grief for a past that cannot be undone.