Traces of bullets remain on this building. You can search for them later. First, please step into the elevator. When this department store opened in 1932, the…
Multilingual AI audio guide exhibit on WOUDiO (PWA). WOUDiO pioneered the world’s first audio guide platform with built-in donation: listeners can support the cultural venue without leaving the listening experience. The text below is the localized description, details, and narration script for this audio guide stop.
Traces of bullets remain on this building. You can search for them later.
First, please step into the elevator.
When this department store opened in 1932, the star of the show for the people of Tainan was not the merchandise, but this very box. There were elevator girls who called out each floor. Riding it was, in itself, the purpose — people came simply to ride. [To confirm: the name and manner of operation of the elevator at the time of opening]
It was designed by Umezawa Sutejirō. The Tainan police station, which you will see a little further on, was also designed by this same man. The very same architect built, side by side, a place of pleasure and a place of control.
Please go up to the rooftop. There, you will find a small shrine. A Shinto shrine, placed atop a department store. In other words, above the sales floor, the faith of the ruling power was set in place.
And then, the bullet marks.
Near the end of the war, this building came under air raid attack. When it was restored, the choice was made not to fill in the scars, but to leave them as they were.
It took seventy years for the department store to become a department store again. This box you are riding in now — throughout that time, it stood still.
