POWs honour former mates at Kukutsu memorial service |
After our visit to Kukutsu on Saturday morning, the POW banquet was held that evening and everyone enjoyed a sumptuous buffet dinner followed by some wonderful and often amusing anecdotes from the POWs.
Sunday morning saw around 100 people gathered at the site of the memorial at Kinkaseki for a very moving service of remembrance. Following the welcome from New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office Director Ms. Clare Fearnley, the POWs each rendered readings in tribute to their mates and their time together as POWs on Taiwan almost 60 years ago. The wreath-laying ceremony was followed by Taps and a minute’s silence before the Reveille sounded.
Remembering former mates and times. . . |
This year we had a special task to perform and that was the dedication of the Heito POW Memorial, and since we had never visited the site of the Shirakawa Camp with any of the visiting POWs who had been interned there, it was decided to run a trip down the island and visit the sites of the Taichu, Shirakawa and Heito Camps. On Monday the 15th we set out by chartered coach and after a couple of hours reached the location of the former Taichu Camp.
It was Taichu Camp where our first returning American ex-POW Clement Schmitt, was interned for a brief period in the fall of 1942. He came to Taiwan on the Lima Maru from the Philippines and stayed at Taichu until November when he and the other Americans were sent back to Takao and put on a hellship called the Dainichi Maru which had brought 300 British POWs to replace them at Taichu Camp. The Americans were then sent to Japan to work as slaves there.
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Former POWs (l-r) Sid Dodds, Jack Fowler, Clement Schmitt and Ben Slack remember the old days at Taichu Camp |
From Taichu we moved on to Shirakawa Camp which is located on a Taiwan military base. We could not get access to the camp but we visited the area and held a memorial service at the old main entrance to the camp. One of the former camp guards was also present for the ceremony.
Former Camp guard joins the POWs by the old camp entrance |
Heito Camp was one of the most significant camps on the island and saw a lot of POW “traffic”. It was the only POW camp on the island to be bombed, and its story has been well documented in earlier issues of our newsletters. After 3 ½ years of work, it was a great thrill to finally be able to dedicate a memorial to the men who suffered there.
Moira Webster (l) and Malcolm Ross at the Heito Memorial dedication remember a father and uncle who didn’t come home. |
This year’s Remembrance Week was a huge success and we are looking forward to next year, and hope that many more POWs and their families will join us at that time. |
