Vol 9, Number 1
Spring - Summer 2008
KAOHSIUNG WAR & PEACE PARK GETS RENOVATION
The Taiwan Hellships Memorial
In January 2006 the Taiwan Hellships Memorial was dedicated in the newly constructed “War and Peace Park” located along the west side of the spit of land that forms the outside boundary of Kaohsiung Harbour. It was here in 1945 that the bodies of more than 350 POWs were buried in a nearby mass grave after the hellship Enoura Maru was bombed by US carrier planes while in the harbour waiting to go to Japan.
The park has been part of the ongoing development of the Chijin area for several years and has come through several stages. When we first built the memorial there, the area was barely recognizable as a “park” but in the past couple of years improvements have gradually been made with the addition of shrubs and walkways, a paved stone square and benches, and it is now beginning to take on a nicer appearance.
The City of Kaohsiung has announced that it will further develop the area this year and the work is expected to be completed by September.
We will bring you more on the development with some photos - hopefully in our next issue in the fall.
HELP WANTED…
Local researcher and friend of the POWs in Scotland, Mr. Campbell Thomson writes -
“I am researching the history of my local regiment, the Lanarkshire Yeomanry, and am seeking information about the part played by the 155th Field Regiment [Lanarkshire Yeomanry] in the Malayan campaign”. I can be contacted at -
Tel 01698 350849 or email: ct@jcthomson.co.uk
A word regarding donations to the Society:
Banks in Taiwan are reluctant to accept anything other than US dollars, so if making a donation to the Society please send the funds in US$ - preferably in a bank draft/cashier’s cheque - made payable to - “J. CHEN ”. Thank you.
DISCOVERY OF THE SITE OF THE FORMER TAKAO CITY HOSPITAL . . .
On a recent trip to Kaohsiung in early May this year I asked my host from the Kaohsiung City Culture Bureau if anything was known of the location of the old Takao City Hospital. The answer was negative.
Over the past few months I had come across several references to the hospital in POW records and stories. There were a number of accounts of local POWs being treated there and POWs who had been on the hellships having died there, so I was keen to find out just exactly where the hospital had been. I had some old aerial photos taken by the USAAF in their reconnaissance and bombing runs over the city in 1944-45 which showed the general area, so using these we set off in search of the former hospital buildings.
As always, once we got in the approximate area where I thought the hospital should be, we began to ask the older local residents and soon we were told exactly where the hospital had been.
There is nothing left of the former site. It is now a residential housing development. The hospital closed down more than 30 years ago and moved to another part of the city. It was re-named the Minsheng Hospital and we are presently working with them to try to learn more about the old site and its history. More to follow!
Site of the former Takao Hospita
NEW POW MEMORIAL TO BE ERECTED AT FORMER SENIOR OFFICERS CAMP
Recently I received word that the Chinese government in Liao Yuan, Liaoning Province is planning to preserve the buildings and erect a memorial on the site of the former Hsi An Senior Officers’ POW Camp there.
This announcement comes four years after a presentation was made to government officials in 2004 on a trip we took to the area at that time. (see story pg 8)
At present we are working with the local historians and museum people in Liao Yuan to further research the story of the former camp and the 32 men who were interned there – all of whom were in Taiwan for more than two years prior to their arrival in December 1944.
Our goal to ensure that the former Taiwan POWs will be honoured and remembered in Manchuria has also finally been realized. We will have more to report later.