北斗飛行場（Hokuto Airdrome）

北斗飛行場位於日治時代的台中州北斗郡，但以現在的行政區來看，卻是位於彰化縣的竹塘鄉和埤頭鄉境內，離北斗鎮還有一小段距離。上面這張模糊的高空空照圖是我所能找到的唯一一張，美軍並沒有在底片上註明飛行場的名稱，所以我根據北斗的日語發音命名為Hokuto Airdrome。不過台灣堡圖上北斗的發音是バクタウ（Bakutau），顯然是從台語音譯而來。
Hokuto is the Japanese pronunciation of Beidou (北斗). However, the airdrome was not located in the current Beidou Township, but in Zhutang and Pitou Townships. This fuzzy photo is the only one that I could find of this airdrome.

下圖是「台灣區各飛機場要圖」中的北斗飛行場圖，由於比例、方位不夠精確，對於在Google Earth上繪製平面圖的幫助不太大。
The following drawing was included in the 1945 Taiwan Area Airdrome Plans, which is of little help for my research.

從下面這張CORONA衛星空照圖可知，到了1966年，北斗飛行場已從地表上消失。
By 1966, Hokuto Airdrome had completely vanished, as can be seen in the following CORONA satellite image.

因為可用的資訊很少，所以我畫的北斗飛行場平面圖相對簡略。儘管上面的飛行場要圖有標出飛機掩體，但在空照圖完全看不出來，因此我就省略沒畫。

• Download the kmz file of the airdrome plan for Google Earth.
• View the airdrome plan on Google Maps.