In early March 1945 the Kinkaseki copper mine was closed and the POWs languished in the camp until early May on a starvation diet. Then it was decided to move them away from the coast in case the Allies should land on Taiwan. On May 16th the first group of 100 men was sent to Taihoku and the village of Shinten (Xindian) by train and then forced to march about 10 kms south, up into the hills to a camp which had little accommodation and no proper facilities. This was basically to be an extermination camp for the remaining Kinkaseki POWs. Later, on May 30th, 100 more men were sent to the camp, and on June 16th, the remaining POWs from Kinkaseki were moved there.
There were just three crudely built huts at first for the 100 POWs to live in, so they had to build more huts made from trees, bamboo and grass for the rest of the men to follow and also for the Japanese and Taiwanese guards. It was terribly hard work for the men in their starving and weakened condition. There was little food, so after more huts were constructed some of the men were put to work on the nearby mountainside, planting sweet potatoes and peanuts on an old tea plantation. They first had to hack out and dig up the old tea bushes before planting the crops which they never did get to eat.
The Japanese treated the men very badly and forced them to work hard with many beatings and provided little food or medicine for the sick men. They were starving, and in addition to the few meagre ounces of rice they received daily, they just ate whatever they could find - mice, rats, snails, snakes and local vegetation. Many of the POWs have said that it was the worst time they had as POWs - even moreso than the copper mine, mainly because of the cruelty and constant beatings from the guards. Two men died and were buried in the camp before the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan which brought the war to an end on August 15th 1945.The POWs later said that if the war had not ended when it did, they likely all would have died there.
After the Japanese surrendered, the men were sent back to Taipei and temporarily housed in a makeshift evacuation camp called Churon. On August 28th the American Air Force dropped food from B-29's on that camp and accidentally killed three men and injured several others. On September 5th the former Kinkaseki / Kukutsu POWs were evacuated by American Navy ships and taken to Manila for medical care and treatment before their return home again.
The location of the former Kukutsu Camp was discovered in 1997. In 1999 the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society erected a memorial to the former Kukutsu prisoners of war and three of the men who were POWs in the camp returned to Taiwan for the dedication ceremony held on November 20th that year.
A couple of years later, due to a construction project in the area, the memorial stone had to be relocated. In 2003 a suitable location was found and in early 2004 the stone was mounted into a permanent concrete base near the entrance to the former camp and by the stream where the men washed after their hard day's slave labour.
On May 16th 2004 - 59 years to the day from when the first group of Kinkaseki POWs staggered into the camp, the new memorial was dedicated. It now stands forever in tribute to the men who suffered so much in that place in the final stages of World War II. May we never forget it - ever!