2010 is the 65th Anniversary of the end of World War II, and we want to share with our readers a chronology of events that took place in 1945 relative to the Taiwan POWs, to help commemorate their suffering and sacrifice for our freedom.
JANUARY
9th – As General Macarthur’s forces made the second major amphibious landing on the Philippines in the Lingayen Gulf, aircraft from the US Navy carrier Hornet attacked Takao (Kaohsiung) Harbour. The hellship Enoura Maru was bombed and more than 350 POWs were killed. They were subsequently buried in a mass grave on Chijin Island. In 1946 the American War Graves Recovery Team removed the remains and sent them to Hawaii for permanent burial.
In 2005 the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society held a memorial service at Kaohsiung Harbour with one former American POW from the Enoura Maru present. It was then decided to build a memorial to the almost 30,000 POWs who had suffered and died on the hellships in Taiwan waters.
In 2006 the Taiwan Hellships Memorial – co-sponsored by the Society and the City of Kaohsiung, was dedicated at Chijin Beach with several family members of the former POWs who died, present for the ceremony. Ironically the location of the memorial is right across the road from the site of the former mass grave. The memorial has now been incorporated into the new “War and Peace Park” which was dedicated on May 20, 2009 and honours the Taiwanese veterans of three conflicts - WWII, the Chinese Civil War and Korean War.
15th – Approximately 1000 POWs who had come to Taiwan in November 1944 on the Hokusen Maru and had spent the previous two months in various camps on the island, and a few who had come on the Enoura and Brazil Marus, were gathered together at Takao and Keelung and sent to Japan on the Melbourne Maru and the Enoshima Maru. Many went to Kyushu, while others went to the Tokyo, Osaka and Sendai areas where they finished out the war.
28th – A PBY4-1 aircraft the “Queen Bee” of US Navy Squadron VPB-117 based in the Philippines was shot down over Tung Kang Harbour south of Takao while on an anti-shipping bombing mission. Three of the crew died in the crash and the others were captured and taken prisoner. One more crewman died the next day from injuries suffered in the crash and another was sent to Japan for interrogation and medical care. The other five were sent to Taihoku (Taipei) and were incarcerated in the Taihoku Prison. They were later given a mock trial, found guilty and executed by the Japs 59 days before the war ended.
FEBRUARY
7th – During an attack on southern Taiwan – once again by aircraft from the USS Hornet, Heito Camp was bombed and 20 POWs were killed and about 80 injured. The Japs provided no medical care for the injured POWs resulting in several more deaths over the next two months. In early March Heito Camp was closed and the POWs dispersed to Taihoku Camp 6 and Shirakawa.
21st – 213 POWs were sent from Kinkaseki to Keelung and then to Japan on the hellship Taiko Maru. Most went to camps on Kyushu with some going to Hakodate in northern Japan. With the departure of those men, around 450 POWs remained at Kinkaseki Camp.
