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Vol 8, Number 2

Fall-Winter 2007

FROM THE DIRECTOR. . .

2007 has been another very busy and fruitful year in our efforts to make the story of the Taiwan POWs known to the world and to make sure that the men who suffered and those who died on this island during World War II will never be forgotten.

Through my travels to Japan, China and North America this year I have been able to interact with fellow researchers, explore former WWII POW campsites, meet with former POWs and veterans and hold memorial services to remember the men.

I have had some wonderful and memorable experiences, one of which was the reunion of the former crewmembers of the USS Block Island – one of the two aircraft carriers that helped evacuate the POWs from Taiwan in September 1945.

Another was the opportunity to help host a tour to Shenyang and to lead nine former POWs and their family members back to the former Mukden Camp there. In addition, our goal to ensure that the former Taiwan POWs - who were later transferred to Mukden, will be honoured and remembered there has also finally been realized.

We have had a large number of overseas visitors this year – from the Netherlands, the UK and the USA, as well as local groups and individuals taking tours of the camps. It is wonderful to be able to share first-hand the story of the Taiwan POWs with them and very rewarding to see the peace and closure this brings to them and their families.

We had another memorable Remembrance Week this year with 17 overseas guests. The theme was “remembering in the future”, and this was brought out by the participation of the younger family members present with us for the first time.

We still have many projects on the go, as well as the daily work of answering inquiries on the POWs and the camps. Work on compiling the archives is moving forward and we are constantly updating the Honour Roll on our website, with over 4200 of the 4344 POW names listed thus far.

As mentioned in our last newsletter, work is ongoing with the research on the Karenko Camp at Hualien, and we are looking at possibly erecting a memorial there. We are working with the Taipei City Gov’t. to place a plaque on the old Taipei Prison Wall to commemorate the 14 American flyers executed there in June 1945, and we are also pursuing possible memorials for Taihoku Camp # 6 and Toroku Camp in the coming year. The “George Harrison Memorial Project” is also a top priority at this time and I hope that many will contribute to this worthy cause.

I want to thank our many friends and supporters worldwide for your continued help, encouragement and support. Thanks to those who continue to send us information, photos and other items to help tell more of the Taiwan POWs’ story .Together we will ensure that the Taiwan POWs are “never forgotten”.

Sailor’s Family Sends the Society Historic Photos

In late October we received an email from Linda and David Pickens of North Carolina in the USA letting us know that they had seen our website and that Linda’s father Frank Wells Y1C had taken part in the evacuation of the POWs from Taiwan in September 1945 as a member of the crew of the USS Brister DE327.

Frank Wells - 1945

The Brister was one of four DE’s that went into Keelung Harbour on September 6th to transport the POWs out to the aircraft carriers USS Block Island and USS Santee for evacuation to Manila and freedom.

Linda and David advised us that during this mission her father had taken photos of the operation, and as the Brister also carried 50 POWs to Manila, he had talked with some of the men and photographed them as well. They wondered if we would like copies of the photos.

Of course our response was affirmative so David and Linda kindly had the photos professionally copied from the original negatives and also had them scanned and put onto a CD. Within a few weeks the package arrived and my hands trembled as I opened it, in anticipation of what I would find inside.

The photos are an incredible piece of WW II history and we are so pleased to have them to further add to this chapter of the Taiwan POWs’ story. It was through Frank’s diary that we learned that the Brister had carried 50 POWs to Manila, and also thanks to his photos and his recording the names and address of several of the prisoners, that we were able to add nine more names of hitherto unknown former Taiwan POWs to our Honour Roll.

POW's waiting evacuation

On sending the material Linda wrote, “The pictures taken by my father are a testament to the strength and courage of all the POWs freed that day. For all the hardship he had experienced, nothing could compare with the suffering and bravery of the POWs. What they had witnessed and what they had survived could not be measured other than in their spirit to live and to bear witness for those who had not survived.”

POW's on the Brister

We are so grateful to Linda and David for their kindness in donating these items. In this way they are helping to further ensure that the POWs - and the sailors who rescued them, will never be forgotten.

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All material, including maps, photographs, drawings etc. on this site, is the copyright of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society and/or those people or organizations who have contributed such material.
We are happy for material on the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society site to be used for schools or research purposes, provided reference is made to its source and/or the owner. No material may be used on another website or reproduced in any manner by any other means or method without permission from the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.