65th ANNIVERSARY REMEMBRANCE WEEK - 2007

     It was 65 years ago this year – in late August of 1942 - that the first prisoners of war of the Japanese were brought to Taiwan, then known as Formosa.

     That first group came from the Philippines and was comprised of Gen. Wainwright and most of the senior officers from Bataan and Corregidor, plus a number of enlisted men. They landed at the port of Takao – now Kaohsiung, and spent about a week at Heito Camp near present day PingTung before being transferred to Karenko Camp on the eastern coast of the island. A couple of weeks later most of the senior British and Australian officers including Gen. Percival and the governors of Malaya, Singapore and the Straits Settlements, also arrived at Takao and soon joined their American counterparts at Karenko.

     More Americans from the Philippines arrived in mid-September and were sent to Taichu Camp where they remained for two months. Other small groups came in the fall of 1942, and then in November another large movement of POWs took place.

     A convoy of hellships bound for Japan off-loaded about 500 British prisoners from the Dainichi Maru at Takao in mid November. 300 went to Taichu to replace the Americans who were then loaded aboard the Dainichi Maru and sent on to Japan. The remaining POWs were kept at Heito Camp.

     About this same time 1100 British POWs were shipped from Singapore on the hellship England Maru and landed at the northern port of Keelung on November 14th. 523 of these men were sent to the Kinkaseki Camp and the balance went to Taihoku Camp # 6 in present day Taipei.

     More prisoners continued to arrive from Singapore, the Dutch East Indies and Hong Kong throughout 1943 and then more Americans came into the Taiwan camps in 1944. By early 1945 a great many of the 4344 Taiwan POWs had been moved to Japan and Manchuria leaving about 1200 remaining when the war ended in August 1945.

The “hellship” England Maru

Like George, L/Cpl. Harold Brant of the 9/11th Indian Division Signals had visited Taiwan four times since his release as a prisoner of war and he wanted to come again last year, but was not in good health and sadly he passed away on March 10th.  Ten members of the Brant “clan” and a close friend joined the group this year to pay tribute to Harry, as he was affectionately known.  

     Remembrance Week started off as usual with a visit to Chinguashi for a look at the former POW camp and mine. The group viewed the POW exhibit in the Museum of Gold and later toured the # 5 mine tunnel which is very similar to the # 6 tunnel where the POWs slaved those many years ago. Later they were shown the route the POWs had to take to go to work at the mine each day, and this was followed by an extensive tour of the former camp area. On the way back to Taipei a stop-over was made at the docks in Keelung Harbour where the men had arrived on that cold, rainy November day back in 1942, and where George had sailed home to freedom in September 1945.

Former POW George Reynolds (center) and FEPOW family members outside the entrance to Kinkaseki # 5 Mine Tunnel

The next day was spent in sightseeing around Taipei, visiting many prominent landmarks like the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, the Lungshan Temple, The Grand Hotel, the National War Memorial and a drive by of the former Taihoku Camp 6 site where Harry and George spent their first months as POWs in Taiwan.

     On Saturday morning the group visited the hills south of Hsintien for a memorial service on the site of the former Kukutsu Camp where the men from Kinkaseki were moved after the mine closed in the spring of 1945. This move likely saved their lives as they were destined to have been put down the “short cut” tunnel and blown up as a final act to “dispose of all the prisoners and leave no trace” as the Japanese high command had ordered.

     The group was welcomed by the local residents and a joint bi-lingual Remembrance Service was held at the memorial erected by the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society in 1999 and re-dedicated after its relocation in 2004.

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