Taipei American School

I received a nice note from Victor this morning.  He provided a link to this image of the first home of Taipei American School, that was taken sometime during the 1950s.  There are literally thousands of such images at Taipics.com, home of Taipei Marc's amazing collection of early Taiwan postcards and photos.


Victor wrote:

"I believe the school was on Chang'an East Road back then. Anybody know its exact location (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_American_School)?

In the summer of 1953, TAS constructed a much larger campus at Chang'an East Road.  In 1956, TAS graduated its first class of 14 seniors. By then, the Chang'an campus had approximately 50 faculty members and 1,000 students. In 1957, Mr. Wayne Nesbitt served as the first superintendent of the school.

In 1959, TAS purchased a 22 acre (89,000 m²) site in Shilin for a new campus. In March 1960, the kindergarten and lower school moved into a 36-classroom 5-wing complex on the site. The upper school remained at the Chang'an campus until 1964, when the last upper school facilities were completed."

A Taiwanese Memory After World War II

In my memory while I was the student of the elementary school, some of my classmates, girls or boys, had no shoes to protect their feet when they went to school in the summer or in the winter, no matter rainy day or sunny day. But, I was lucky although my shoes were not new and they were my aunt's old shoes.

After WWII in Taiwan, not only US Aid from US government but also many aid items from American people that I could see in the church, including clothes, medicines, food ( milk powder, wheat groats), etc. In elementary schools, all the students could enjoy the milk about 500 cc every week. The younger girls and boys in nursery school of the church could enjoy the hot and sweet food of wheat groats. Some of the students in elementary school who had eyes illness could accept medicine treatment ( kind of ointment in tube) every day.

My grandfather who passed away about 20 years ago was a grower of pine trees in the mountains of the middle Taiwan when I was a little girl.
 

In my memory, he sent US Army a lot of pine trees before Christmas was coming in December every year and US Army gave my grandfather some bags of flour and wheat groats as gifts. At that time, my grandmother and mom used the flour to make many steamed buns and delicious dumplings for meals, sometimes, I could take some at home and shared with my friends happily when we were hungry after school. I knew the flour was from USA because I saw the US flag printed on the outside of the bag.

In my heart and feeling, the friendship between Taiwanese people and USA was warm and so kind. USA government was really friendly helping Taiwanese people to restore their living since WWII was over.

However, I hope that USA would never forget the relationship with Taiwan and the people of Taiwan island.


Written by a Taiwanese

Tien Mou in 1984 - Part 3

These are the last of the Tien Mou photographs that Les took during his 1984 visit to Taiwan.  They are also of the east side, where the recreation facilities were located.  The second to the last photo identifies that area as the intended site of the new Taipei American School.

Tien Mou in 1984 - Part 2

Today's photos are of the east side, where the recreation facilities were located.

Wainright High School Query

This is a little off-topic, but it is related to the information I posted a few days ago regarding American schools in Taiwan.

Mr. David Yang sent me the following message:

Hello Don

The city government of Tainan is now asking its citizens to send in any information (photos, stories ect.) related to the Jonathan Wainwright high school. The city government plans to turn the original site of the wainwright high school into a park with an exhibition place to introduce the once existed American school. I wonder if you know someone who can help. Thank you in advance.

David Yang
Taiwan

If anyone here has any information on the school and is interested in participating in this project, please drop me an email and I'll send you Mr. Yang's email address.

Schools

I didn't have my family with me in Taipei, but those who did will surely remember Taipei American School, as well as some of the parochial schools mentioned here. Today's TAS website is located here. The TAS Stateside Alumni website can be found here.

The University of Maryland had a resident campus at TAS, as it had at military facilities all over the world. Though I didn't take any classes while in Taipei, sad to say, I later completed on-base course work through the University of Maryland, UC Berkeley, Park University and other schools enroute to my degree.

Once again, many thanks to Les Duffin for taking the time to scan these pages from "Taiwan Report."