THINK ABOUT IT. . . .
by Michael Hurst

Over the past couple of years as I have gone about my daily routine of life, I have often been suddenly jolted by reality as I compared what I was doing at that very moment to how it must have been for the POWs here on Taiwan those many years ago.

For example, one Monday morning I woke up, not feeling “all that well” - most likely having a touch of the flu. My body ached from fever and I felt listless and tired. I didn’t feel like getting up and going to work that morning and decided to remain in the snug confines of my bed until this had all passed.

As I lay there contemplating my sorry state, my memory drifted back to one of the POW’s diaries I had recently been reading. In it he told of experiences just like mine - where he and many of his mates felt so weak and ill when they heard the call for reveille each morning, that all they wanted to do was pull the blankets up over their heads and go back to sleep. But they had to get up and go to “work” anyway - most often at the “urging” of the guards and often at bayonet point! There was no “option”, they just HAD to go, no matter how badly they felt or how sick they were.

Some time later, for some unknown reason I contracted a case of diarrhea, and as I frequented my nice sanitary bathroom in relative “comfort” with its plentiful supply of toilet paper, I began to think of the POWs and the multitude cases of dysentery and diarrhea that they had to contend with. They had no toilet paper and no proper facilities to use most of the time. I thought of them being force-marched to work and then made to slave under horrid conditions - still plagued by the need to frequently stop and attend to the call of nature, knowing even then, that as they did so, they would not be able to complete the work required of them which would result in a further beating at the end of the day.

Not so long ago in December - when the weather turned quite cold in Taipei, I found myself complaining about the damp bitter cold as I put on an extra sweater and turned up the electric heater a bit more. Then my mind returned to another POW’s story of his time here in the Taihoku Camp when the weather was so cold and he despaired of ever being warm again. The crude wood and bamboo huts were drafty and let in the rain and cold, and with no heaters it was impossible to get warm. This went on day after day - for many weeks!

The prisoners never had an abundance of clothes - most wore only a shirt and trousers in the coldest months of winter, sometimes augmented with a sweater or jacket if they could get their hands on one. At night they slept on beds made of planks with only a couple of rough wool army blankets to keep them warm. My bed was soft and warm and I could have all the blankets I wanted to keep warm. I thought of this POW who survived the war, and I wondered of I could have done the same under similar circumstances.

When it comes to food, I am usually fine with almost anything, and not one to complain about what I am served. However, living in Taiwan and having rice as the main staple dish does make me wish for other varieties of food now and again. Whenever I get thinking this way now, I am reminded once again of the POWs and that they had NOTHING but rice basically - three times a day - EVERYDAY for 3 1/2 YEARS! To go with this, they did have a thin watery green soup and now and again sweet potato tops, a bit of cabbage or other “unknown” vegetables. Occasionally they were given bananas or oranges - OF WHICH THEY ATE THE SKINS, PEELS AND ALL, and on very special occasions the POW cooks were given a bit of pork to go into a stew. One wonders what a bit of pork could do to enhance the taste and nutritional value of a stew for 700 men!

So let us all be mindful as we go about our lives today - what it was like for the POWs back then, and what they suffered - in their everyday life in the camps (not to mention the beatings and the ravages of disease), to bring us our freedom and the peace and prosperity we enjoy today - JUST THINK ABOUT IT!

As former Kinkaseki Committee Chairmen Jeff Cox so aptly put it when he was addressing the gathering at the Memorial in 1998 - “ If it wasn’t for those POWs doing what they did here in Taiwan those many years ago, then we “expats” would not be doing what we are doing today!” We owe them all a debt of gratitude that can NEVER be repaid!