The Discovery of Taiwan Camp #3 - HEITO
by Michael Hurst

The old narrow-guage rail-line can still be found beside the former Heito Camp #3

        After more than a year of study, research and investigation into old WWII POW camp reports and records, and after a considerable amount of correspondence with ex-POWs, a team from the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society was finally ready to try to locate the site of the former Taiwan POW Camp #3 at Heito - the old Japanese name for Ping Tung.
        Since some of the POWs worked in the sugar factory at PingTung during their captivity, we had contacted the historical and public relations departments of Taiwan Sugar Co. to see what information could be gleaned. We were also given the name of a local Taiwanese historian in the Ping Tung area who knew of a former camp guard who might be able to help us.
         There were four members on the team. and as we set out for Ping Tung City on Friday September 10 our hopes ran high. Stuart Saunders, Gerry Norris and I spent most of the day driving in Stuart’s car, and finally arrived in PingTung around 3:30pm. We found the old Taiwan Sugar Co. factory and interviewed Mr. Huang from the PR Dep't. there, who showed us around and let us take photos of the old plant. It has been closed for many years but there is still a lot to be seen. The POWs worked there during the sugar harvest season and some were in the factory when the Americans bombed Heito camp in February 1945.
           That night we picked up our fourth member, Jack Geddes, who had flown down late in the afternoon after work. We made our final preparations, and hoped that everything would go according to plan for the next day.            Early the next morning we met the local historian, Miss Huang, who had arranged for us to meet with the former POW camp guard who was going to show us where the camp was located. She had made contact with his family earlier that week.
           As we drove through the countryside and came upon the fields of sugar cane, the whole scenario began to unfold in my mind - it was just like some of the POWs had described it from those many years ago.
     We arrived at the home of Mr. Lin, the former camp guard. He was working in his back garden and as we approached, gave us a friendly wave.
        

          I had a lot of questions prepared for him and the interview went well. I was a bit nervous at first, because of the stories I had heard from the POWs about some of the Formosan guards and how they treated the POWs in those days. I wanted to find out his role and was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was conscripted as a "perimeter guard" - that is, one of the guards who patroled outside the camp in case the POWs tried to escape. The POWs had to bow to him on their way to work or in the fields if he came round - like they did every other guard, but he never really came in contact with the prisoners and was never instructed to hit or abuse them.
           It turned out that he is - and was then - a Christian, and he felt very sorry for the plight of the POWs. He said he often tried to cheer them with a smile and sometimes gave them cigarettes if he could get some. He was most co-operateive in telling us many things about the Japanese and the "inside" guards.
           He told us of Tamaki, the camp commandant and how ruthless and cruel he was. There was also Sgt. Chiba who he said was a real animal and even the Formosan guards didn’t like him.
          I asked about the camp cemetery and he knew right where that was too. He said the Japanese used to take the bodies there, along with several of the POWs who formed the burial party. Later, after finishing the interview, we piled into several cars and headed off for the site of the former camp and cemetery.
            The old camp is now a military base so we were denied access, but we were permitted to look around the outside. There is nothing inside the base now from those former times, so nothing was lost. There are now groves of tall palm trees all around the site of the former camp - whereas in the old days there was nothing - just open fields and blistering sun.
           The area around the site of the former camp hasn’t changed much since wartime. In front of the camp there are still sprawling fields of sugar cane, and others still covered with rocks and stones. The old narrow-gauge railway lines criss-cross the area and can easily be identified from the maps and sketches supplied by some of the ex-POWs whom I have interviewed.       

A scene from the past - fields of stones and sugar cane, unchanged from POW days!