THE OTHER COMMONWEALTH PRISONER OF WAR . . .

The story of the three Canadian and one New Zealand prisoners of war on Taiwan during World War II.

The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society wants to ensure that the memory of all the former Taiwan POWs, including those from the other Commonwealth countries of Canada, New Zealand and South Africa are remembered, as well those from countries who had the majority of POWs on Taiwan.

     In addition to the British, American, Dutch and Australian POWs who made up the majority of the prisoners held by the Japanese in Taiwan during World War II, there were three Canadians, two South Africans and one New Zealander who were held in camps in Taiwan for various periods of time. We have dealt with the two South Africans – William Reid, Sapper, Royal Engineers and John M. Henderson, Private, Royal Army Service Corps in the story by Mark Wilkie – see “Forgotten Country – Forgotten Heroes” also in the Feature Articles section of our website, so this article will deal with the Canadians and the New Zealander.

MAJOR BENJAMIN WHEELER – Egerton, Alberta, Canada – British Indian Medical Service

After graduating from medical school in 1937 Ben Wheeler did not have enough resources to start his own practice, so after an additional course in tropical medicine in the UK, he joined the British Indian Medical Service in India. When war broke out with Japan he was sent to Malaya and Singapore and was taken prisoner by the Japanese there on February 15, 1942. His wife and family had already moved back to Canada from India, and it would be one full year before they even knew that he was alive and a prisoner of war.

Ben was sent to Taiwan in November 1942 on the hellship the England Maru. He was in the first group of POWs to be sent to Taihoku Camp 6 in Taipei. Conditions in the camp were deplorable with men suffering from various diseases – mostly brought on by malnutrition and the slave labor they were forced to do there. Wheeler tried his best to care for the men with the little equipment he had and the scant medicine the Japs provided. It was a struggle which he recorded in his now famous diary.

In August 1943, Ben was moved to Kinkaseki – the infamous copper mine camp. On arrival there he found the resident RAMC doctor Captain Peter Seed in poor health from his attempts to care for the men who were slaving down the mine. Wheeler took over the camp ‘hospital’ – merely one of the POW huts set aside for that purpose, and began again to do what he could to alleviate the suffering of the men. During the next two years he saved the lives of hundreds of men though his ingenuity and the practice of ‘jungle medicine’. He operated on men with razor blades and no anaesthetic, he helped men who had their backs and limbs broken in rock falls and accidents in the mine to live and walk again – the POWs called him “The Man Sent From God”!

He was not able to save them all and more than 80 POWs died at Kinkaseki during the 2 ½ years the men spent there. In March 1945, after the mine had closed, Major Wheeler took the last party of 86 sick and dying men from Kinkaseki to Shirakawa Camp. This move is credited with saving many of the men’s lives, but still 15 died later at the new camp.

When the war was over Wheeler stayed on in Taiwan until the last of the sick POWs had been evacuated. His diary was used to convict criminals in the War Crimes Trials and was later made into a movie by his daughter, Canadian film-maker Anne Wheeler in the moving docu-drama “A War Story” released by Canada’s National Film Board in 1980. Ben Wheeler died in Edmonton in 1963.

It was the story of Ben Wheeler and his dairy which was brought to our attention in late 1996 that led to the formation of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society and the work we have done thus far.

BRIGADIER KENNETH S. TORRANCE – Guelph, Ontario, Canada – General Staff Command

     Brigadier Kenneth Sanderson Torrance was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1896. In school he was involved in the drama club, army cadets and the rifle team. He was a top cadet and he went to the Royal Military College at Kingston, Ontario in 1914.

     Torrance went overseas during World War I and served with the Canadian Army until the armistice. He was awarded the Military Cross for distinguished service. After the war, he transferred to the British Army, took staff training and continued to serve in India and Malaya through World War II.

At first he served with the Manchester Reg’t. for a time. By the time of Singapore he was a fairly senior staff officer and had not served with a battalion of the Regiment for some time.

     He was sent to Malaya in 1940. He was one of the three senior British officers in Singapore, a close aide to General A.E. Percival the top British commander, and was a member of the famous surrender party at Singapore. He is shown in the photo of the surrender party going to the Ford Factory at Bukit Timah walking next to General Percival. In the 1942 New Year's Honours List ceremony, King George VI awarded Torrance the Order of the British Empire for his bravery while serving with the besieged British Forces in Singapore.

Brigadier Torrance spent 3 ½ years in Japanese captivity. He was sent to Formosa with General Percival’s group in August 1942 and after spending a week at Heito Camp was moved with all the senior officers and governors of Singapore and Malaya to Karenko Camp where he remained until April 1943. Then he and the most senior British, American, Australian and Dutch officers, plus the governors of all the former SE Asian colonies, were sent to Tamazato camp for two months.

     In July 1943 he was transferred to Shirakawa Camp where he remained, doing farm labour under miserable conditions until October 1944 when he was once more moved to Mukden, Manchuria in northeast China. There he finished his days as a POW until evacuated by the allied forces in early September 1945.

     Torrance returned to Guelph in 1945 after his time as a prisoner of war. He also lived in Toronto for a time. Because of his time as a POW, his health was severely affected and he lived to be only 52. He died in 1948 at his winter home in the Bahamas.    

L/BDR. ROBERT BICKFORD – Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada  - 5TH Field Reg’t. Royal Artillery

     It is not known how Robert Bickford came to be in the 5th Field Regiment Royal Artillery, but it is known that at the outbreak of war a number of Canadian young men from the Maritimes went to England and joined up. Likely Bickford was in this group.

     The 5th Field Regiment was stationed in India and when war clouds loomed the main units were sent to Malaya as part of the 9th Indian Division. They were stationed at Khota Baru and Kuantan, and once the Japanese attacked they were one of the first units to go into action in the Pacific War. They fought a retreating action all the way to Singapore and were taken prisoner when the island surrendered on February 15, 1942.

     Robert was moved to Taiwan in November 1942 on the hellship England Maru and first went to Taihoku Camp 6. It is quite likely that after about a year in that camp he was moved to Taichu Camp in central Taiwan where he would have worked on a flood diversion channel in the nearby river close to the camp. When the area was flooded and the camp was evacuated he probably moved to Inrin Camp and from there to Shirakawa in the spring of 1945. He finished the war in Shirakawa Camp.

FLT. LIEUT. IVAN JULIAN – Wellington, New Zealand - Royal New Zealand Air Force / RAF

     Ivon Julian joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force in January 1940. On completion of training he was posted to England, joining 232 Squadron RAF in January 1941. By later that year, he had become a Flight Commander. Posted overseas with the unit, he subsequently led his Flight to Batavia, Java, on January 27, 1942. Moving to Singapore on the 5th February, he soon established himself as a good fighter pilot and leader for his men. 

In the days that followed he flew many patrols attacking the Japanese planes which were attacking the Johore Straits and Singapore. On the 8th of February he and his unit moved to Palembang, Sumatra where he furthered continued  his air war with the Japs. Withdrawn to Java mid-February, the balance of his unit became 242 Squadron RAF, and early in March he was promoted to command this unit when most senior officers were withdrawn to Australia.

     On the 1st March the Japanese invaded Java with a series of beach landings in the northwest. By this stage the squadron were reduced to six operational Hurricanes and on the 8th March the island of Java surrendered and Julian was captured, along with a further 15 members of his squadron. He then became a prisoner of war. In all he had shot down at least four enemy aircraft, damaged four aircraft in the air, and destroyed one on the ground.

     He was first moved to Singapore and held as a prisoner there. In November 1943 he was sent to Taiwan on the hellship Hawaii Maru with a number of other British, Australian and Dutch officers, arriving at Shirakawa Camp on the 8th. He remained there until October 1944 when he was sent north via Japan to Mukden, Manchuria where he finished the war as a POW.

 He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1946 after he returned home.

    Postwar Ivon Julian became a successful businessman, in later years changing his first name to Evan. He passed away in Auckland, New Zealand, on 29th August 1999.