TAIHOKU-MOSAK CAMP # 5 -
       On Sunday June 25, acting on the information provided a couple of weeks earlier by Mr. Lin, the local historian, and his father, who had been a conscript in the Japanese Army, Stuart Saunders and Tina and Michael Hurst made the journey out to the site of the former Taihoku Mosak Camp #5.        With a little effort they located the old camp situated on a little knoll in the community of Mucha - southeast of Taipei City.
       The site now consists of several broken-down and derelict houses - left over from the influx of squatters who came to Taiwan with the Chinese Army from Mainland China after the Chinese Civil war in 1949. The site still belongs to the ROC military although there is not an actual base there anymore. They were not surprised to find that this was military property as most of the former POW camps are controlled by the Taiwan military today.         Although there are no actual buildings remaining from that former time, one of the present buildings could be standing on the same site as one of the two main buildings from that earlier time. In fact they wondered if it might even be a remodelling of the original building, as it was located in the same place and measured about the same as the main POW hut which was described by one of the POWs from that time.
         Engineer Stuart measured the area of the compound and found it to be just about exactly the size described in an earlier report. They also talked to one of the neighbours who confirmed that the area had been occupied by the military in earlier times, although he had no knowledge of the POWs as he had come later. Michael and Stuart started poking around the site -

despite Tina’s warning about possible snakes in the long grass. They were looking for anything that might have been left from earlier times. They turned up some pieces of old black slate roof tiles and some bits of old water pots. The roof tiles were definitely from the Japanese era as the postwar Taiwanese roof tiles were made of cast concrete. The pieces of the old water pots were similar to those found at Kinkaseki and which were common for storing water at the POW camps.
       No snakes were encountered and all counted the day’s exploring as very worthwhile as they were able to add another camp to our list of those found.

TAIHOKU-OKA CAMP -

       In mid-August Michael made a further trip up into the mountains north of Taipei City in search of the elusive OKA Camp. Altogether, two separate days were spent looking for more clues to its location.
        One the first day he found and talked with a local resident who had been a former conscript of the Japanese, and had served with the army in Taipei City. He had also been a worker for a time at Taihoku Camp #6. He was not a guard but did other jobs in the camp. He told of the sad plight of the prisoners - how thin they were, and how sick they looked much of the time. Mr. Li also told the story of how the Japanese guards used to like to slap the faces of the British prisoners as hard as they could, as they enjoyed seeing how red the “white faces” got when slapped. He noted that the Japanese worked the prisoners very hard. On the second day, meetings were held with two of the local school teachers and historians from the area who have become vitally interested in the POWs’ story and in helping us find the location of this camp. (con’t. on page 4 )