The Hellships Memorial - Update
The hellship Dainichi Maru – carried POWs from Singapore to Taiwan and Japan – November 1942
From early 1942, the Japanese moved POWs by sea out of all the areas they had conquered - Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Java, and other places, and sent them to Japan, Taiwan, Burma, the Dutch East Indies and other areas to be used as slave labor. It should be noted that every POW who was on Taiwan came here by hellship, and many left the same way, being taken to Japan and Manchuria. Many came on the Dainichi Maru – which is pictured above.
Tens of thousands of prisoners were transported on dozens of Japanese "Hellships", and many thousands perished from starvation, sickness, neglect and murder - or were killed when the unmarked ships were attacked by friendly forces.
To date, there has never been a memorial dedicated to those who suffered and died on the “hellships”, but this will change in January 2006 with the dedication of the World War II Hellships Memorial at Subic Bay in the Philippines near Manila.
The Hellships Memorial Committee, headed by Duane Heisinger of the USA – whose father died aboard the hellship Enoura Maru when it was bombed by US carrier aircraft in the harbour at Takao (Kaohsiung) Taiwan in January 1945, has been working for two years on this wonderful project and the memorial is near completion and will be dedicated on January 22nd 2006.
The memorial will honour ALL persons of ALL countries who were POWs of the Japanese during World War II, and who were transported by the Japanese in the various ships they owned or controlled. This includes civilians who were transported with the POWs and were treated essentially as POWs. The Hellships Memorial will be a permanent tribute to the many who died and those who survived the unparalleled atrocity of the hellships.
The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society has supported the Hellships Memorial and has worked along with the committee right from the start. The Society will be represented at the dedication of the memorial at Subic Bay in January and Director Michael Hurst will take part in the official wreath-laying ceremony – on behalf of all the Taiwan POWs and their families.
For further information please email the Society at: society@powtaiwan.org
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| NEWS FLASH !!
The “TAIWAN HELLSHIPS MEMORIAL”
Following the memorial service held in January 2005 by the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society to commemorate the bombing of the hellship Enoura Maru in Kaohsiung Harbour, it was suggested by the City of Kaohsiung Cultural Affairs Bureau that a memorial should be built in Taiwan to remember the men who were transported aboard the hellships that came to the Taiwan ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung and those who suffered and died on them.
Taiwan played a significant role in the story of the hellships. Being a Japanese colony and secure base, it served as a haven for many ships enroute to Japan as well as a prime destination for POWs being used as slave labour for the Japanese war effort.
During the past year the Society has kept in contact with the City of Kaohsiung in an effort to encourage the continuation of the project. At the request of Dr. Yeh, the former Director-General of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Society has endeavoured to provide advice and ideas for the memorial as well as a design and inscription.
In early November a location for the memorial was decided upon and preparations began in earnest. The memorial will be built within the boundaries of the new “War and Peace Park” as proposed by the Council of Cultural Affairs of the Taiwan National Government at Chijin Beach, Kaohsiung Harbour. The location is especially significant as the park lies just across the road from the site of the former mass grave where the men who died when the Enoura Maru was bombed were first buried. Later their remains were exhumed and re-interred in the Punchbowl National War Cemetery in Hawaii.
A budget for the memorial was approved by the City of Kaohsiung, a contractor was obtained and the construction of the memorial is scheduled to begin shortly. It is expected that the memorial will be completed by January 15th in time for the visit by the group that will come to Taiwan following the dedication of the Hellships Memorial at Subic Bay.
This group – including Duane Heisinger and his wife, will visit the city of Kaohsiung to see the harbour area where so many of the hellships docked, the site of the former mass grave where those who died on the Enoura and Brazil Marus were buried, and also take part in the dedication of the Taiwan Hellships Memorial hosted by the City Gov’t. and the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.
It is intended that the Taiwan Hellships Memorial will compliment the main one at Subic Bay; to draw more attention to story of the hellships and the men who suffered and died on them. A full report of the dedication will follow in our next newsletter. |
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