罕為人知的苓雅寮飛行場
The Little-Known Reigaryo Airdrome (Part 1)

Source： Japan Center for Asian Historical Records

儘管許多二次大戰期間的美軍情報分析報告把日軍設在目前小港國際機場位置的飛行場稱為Reigaryo Airfield（苓雅寮飛行場），這個名稱卻不是很恰當，因為當時的苓雅寮（位於現在苓雅區的最西邊）距離這個飛行場還有五公里之遙，我這回也不是要談這座飛行場，而是真正被日本人冠上「苓雅寮」名稱的飛行場。最上圖取自一份昭和5年（1930年）的日本政府文件，整份文件是關於高雄旗後地區的電線架設，不過在這張圖上畫出了「著陸場預定地」（所有紅色的符號都是我加上去的），也就是這幾個字所指到的長方形區域，最上方三個用紅色圈出的小字就是「苓雅寮」。
Although many intelligence report produced by the US military during WWII referred to the old airfield built on the site of current Kaohsiung International Airport as Reigaryo Airfield (or Airdrome), it was actually a misnomer: the site was at least five kilometers away from Reigaryo. The drawing on the top is taken from a Japanese government documented dated 1930 (Showa 5) about a powerline erection project in the Takao (Kaohsiung) harbor area. For those who cannot read Kanji or Chinese characters, I marked the three printed characters meaning “Reigaryo” with three small red circles and the words meaning “planned location for the landing field” in the red dotted oval. The planned site is the rectangle pointed by these words.

這個長方形的預定地裡，還有一塊必須填海造地（埋立）的平行四邊形區域，圖上標的尺寸是底長200間、高154間（1間約1.818公尺）。所以我推算這個著陸場長約360間，寬約180間（655 m x 327 m）。由於這份文件的主題不是這個著陸場，也就沒有提到這個「預定」的著陸場何時會動工興建。
Since this document was not about the landing area per se, it did not say when the landing area would be built, nor did it specify the size. However, inside the rectangular planned site, the drawing showed a parallelogram which was to be land-filled. Its base was 200 ken and the height was 154 ken (one ken equals 1.818 meter). So I estimated the landing area to be about 360 ken by 180 ken (655 m x 327 m).

日本海軍在昭和8年（1933年）6月23日的一份主旨為《苓雅寮飛行機不時着陸場設備工事竣功の件》的公文中，附上了如下的攝影位置圖（紅色英文字是我加上的）及五張照片。位置圖中的長方形應該就是這座緊急著陸場，用現代的術語來說，它的方向是18/36，跟本文第一張圖的著陸場預定地一致。圖中1到5的數字代表五張照片拍攝的位置與方向。
The document titled Completion of Construction of Reigaryo Emergency Landing Field produced by the Japanese Navy on June 23, 1933, included the drawing below (I added the four words in red to explain the four kanji characters) and five photos of the landing field. The rectangle in the drawing should be the landing field. Note the north/south orientation, which is consistent with the orientation of the planned site in the top drawing. The numbers 1 to 5 represent where the photos were taken.

Source： Japan Center for Asian Historical Records

這份公文所附的五張照片分別如下：
The five photos attached to the Japanese Navy documents are shown below.

Source： Japan Center for Asian Historical Records

因為1號照片與3號照片都是向北拍攝，照片裡的山就是壽山，可與以下老照片裡左方的山形比較。
As the photos numbered 1 and 3 are both facing north, the hills in both photos are Kotobuki Yama (Shoushan). See the hill on the left side of the next photo.

Source： 高雄老照片 Kaohsiung Memory