Vol 10, Number 2
Fall - Winter 2009
The Story of the Kilt . . .
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| Harvey Murdock as a young Gunner’s Mate on the USS Block Island |
As noted in the USS Block Island excerpts, GM Harvey Murdock became friends with one of the Scottish Gordon Highlander POWs and before disembarking in the Philippines the POW gave Harvey his kilt. When I mentioned to Bill and Harvey that I would like to have some photos of the kilt, Harvey graciously decided to donate the kilt to us for our future POW Museum. It has already been on display once at our POW banquet in November.
On hearing this news I did some research into who the kilt may have belonged to. There were only a few men from the Gordon Highlanders left on Taiwan at war’s end and I knew my good friend John Emmett had been transported from Taiwan on the Block Island, so at first I believed the kilt may have been his. What a coincidence and a small world it would be if it was his kilt. I have his Glengarry cap which he left to me.
When the kilt finally arrived here in early September – in fact 64 years to the week that the POWs were evacuated from Taiwan in 1945, and after checking the initials and serial number I discovered that it was not John’s but rather it belonged to a man named James Gray, also of the Gordon Highlanders.
Harvey wrote when sending the kilt, “I feel so very good that the kilt is where it should be. With my best regards, HM”.
It is so great to have this very special and personal part of Taiwan’s POW history included in our POW collection after all these years. Our thanks to Harvey for donating it and also to Bill and Judy MacInnes for their help in getting the kilt to us. We will not forget the service rendered to the Taiwan POWs by Harvey and the other crewmembers of the USS Block Island.
Harvey today - at his home in Utah - and the kilt
Sharing the Taiwan POWs’ story on Radio Taiwan International
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| Headquarters building of Radio Taiwan International in Taipei |
Radio Taiwan International is Taiwan's national broadcaster. It broadcasts worldwide in 13 different languages. ”Time Traveller" is a 10 -minute weekly English programme. It is aired every Wednesday in seven time slots and is also available on demand via the internet.
Early this summer I was contacted by Ms. Shih-han Huang a journalist at Radio Taiwan International's English Service. She hosts the programme, Time Traveller, in which she introduces stories about Taiwan’s history. She kindly invited me to share with her listeners worldwide a little of the largely unknown story of the former Taiwan Camps and the men who were interned in them.
The interview was spread over two programs as Shih-han wanted to do one interview “live” at one of the POW camps sites and the second in a studio environment. So one day in late August we went out to Jinguashi to the site of the former Kinkaseki POW Camp for the first part and then the next day we completed the second session in the studio.
The programs aired worldwide on September 9th and 16th and it is exciting to think that the POWs’ story could be shared with potentially millions of listeners worldwide. We are certainly getting an audience for the POWs’ story and thanks to Shih-han and RTI for this wonderful opportunity.
POW Presentation at the Lung Ying-tai Foundation
This summer I was also contacted by the Lung Ying-tai Foundation of Taipei and asked to present the story of the Taiwan POW camps to the fall session of their well-known Taipei Salon educational programme to be held on October 24th. It was a real privilege as well as a challenge to try to give at least an overview of the Taiwan POW camps in a couple of hours to the approx. 300 people present at the seminar and I am grateful to Dr. Lung and her foundation for the opportunity to share the Taiwan POWs’ story locally with a wide variety of scholars, students and interested listeners.