| 60th ANNIVERSARY REMEMBRANCE WEEK 2005 |
| “LEST WE FORGET” – has a new meaning for the fifteen overseas visitors who came to Taiwan this year for the annual ‘Remembrance Week Event’. For several of them it was a time of visiting former POW camps and remembering past times and old friends. For others – like Sally Dorrian, it provided closure, as her grandfather died in the Kinkaseki Camp just a few months before the war ended in January 1945. Others, having seen the terrible conditions their fathers had to endure, had a new understanding of why they came back so different after the war.
This year’s Remembrance Week ran from November 16th to the 23rd and was the biggest and best ever. Of the fifteen overseas guests who were on hand to take part in the events three were former Taiwan POWs, two from the UK and one from Canada. In addition we had two wives, five FEPOW “children”, one brother, one friend and three guests from Agape Reconciliation Ministries in Japan, join us. The events began with a trip to Kinkaseki on Thursday November 17th - to view the area and site of the former POW camp. A visit to the Museum of Gold allowed the guests to see the display that honours the POWs and their mates. Later a stop at Keelung Harbour reminded the men of the day they were liberated and began their long journey home to their loved ones – and freedom, once more.
On Friday the group had the honour and privilege of meeting Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian at the Presidential Office Building, where they were warmly received. |
This was followed by a visit to the ROC Armed Forces Museum to see the special exhibition of POW photos and artifacts put on by the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.
On Saturday, November 19th, the group took a trip to the countryside south of Hsintien to the location of the former Kukutsu “jungle” Camp for a memorial service beside the Kukutsu POW Memorial and a walk about the former camp.
Later in the evening more than 50 people gathered for the annual POW Banquet at the Imperial Hotel, where those in attendance had the opportunity to meet the former POWs and listen to their stories. Greetings were read from many of the POWs who had previously been to Taiwan and who wished to be remembered to their friends here. Sunday the 20th saw more than 120 people gathered in Chinguashi for the annual Remembrance Service, which was co-hosted this year by the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei. In addition to the regular Remembrance Day Service, this year a special ceremony was held under the auspices of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, to dedicate the new “Prisoner of War Memorial Park” which has recently been re-constructed on the site of the former POW camp. In addition to the FEPOWs and their families, we had the government representatives from a number of Commonwealth and Allied nations, the Deputy Secretary General of the ROC Veterans Affairs Commission, and officials from the county and local district governments on hand for this important ceremony. (con’t on page 8) |
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