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Page 5

Winter 1999

LIST OF TAIWAN POW CAMPS. . .

KINKASEKI (CHINGUASHI) - found
TAICHU (TAICHUNG) - found
HEITO (PINGTUNG) - found
SHIRAKAWA (CHIAYI)
TAIHOKU #1/5 ? (TAIPEI)
TAIHOKU #6 (TAIPEI) - almost
KARENKO (HUALIEN) - found
TAMAZATO (YULI) - found
KUKUTSU (TAIPEI) - found
TAIHOKU - OKA (TAIPEI) - almost
TAIHOKU - MOSAK (TAIPEI)

UPDATE ON POW CAMPS...
Although the locations of the senior officers’ camps at KARENKO and TAMAZATO have been known to us for some time now, as far as we knew, there were no living survivors, as most of the senior officers were already in their forties or fifties at the time of their internment. Hence there didn’t seem to be nuch hope of obtaining any first-hand information about these camps and so we haven’t devoted too much time to their memory.
However, last month, in response to a story on the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society in a UK FEPOW newsletter, Mr. Jack Catherall - one of the former assistants to one of the senior officers contacted us through Maurice Rooney, our rep. in the UK. What a find! Now we will be able to learn first-hand of the experiences of the senior officers in those camps. Stay tuned for more in a future issue!

WELCOME !
We want to welcome Mr. David Coates, Director-General of the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei as an ex-officio director of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.
Mr. Coates arrived in Taipei about the same time as the Society was formed, and thus needed a little time to “settle in”. He assumes the same role as the other Commonwealth Representatives in supporting our objectives and helping out where possible.
He has already been active, having spoken at the dedication of the Kukutsu POW Memorial this past November. Welcome David and thank you for your support.

AMERICAN POW NEWS. . .
By Jerome Keating
I recently received a letter from Mr. Clement Schmidt of Florida who was a POW at Taichu Camp. He was among the group of American POWs who inhabited the camp prior to the arrival of the British POWs in November 1942, and is the only survivor we have found from this group so far. We are hoping he can supply further details about the camp at that time.

REGARDING PTE. BROWNING
The former POW from the UK who was in the senior officers’ camp at Karenko (see UPDATE ON POW CAMPS) has told us that he remembers a Pte. H. R. Browning from Arkansas who worked in the camp “hospital” there. Later he moved to Shirakawa Camp and from there accompanied the senior officers all the way to Mukden, North China. Now we know that Browning came to Taiwan along with General Wainwright’s group of officers from the Philippines and also how he spent his time in Taiwan. It’s thrilling to see more pieces of this intriguing story coming together. Maybe we’ll find Pte. Browning yet!

AMERICA’S TEN MOST WANTED !

S/Sgt. E.A. Johnson - Trenton, New Jersey
S/Sgt. A.J. Raynis - Brooklyn, New York
Pfc. W.B. Smith - Salinas, California
Pfc. J.P. Kondrasiewicz - Kensington, Penna.
Pfc. B. Dean - Breckenbridge, Texas
Capt. C.V. Kern - Tulsa, Oklahoma
Capt. L. Schneider - Portland, Oregon
Sgt. P. Brodsky - Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia
Pfc. A.Z. Encinas - Jerome, Arizona
Pfc. B.P. Paradise - Boystown, Nebraska

These ten men were the only Americans to go to Kinkaseki, and so far we have been unable to trace the whereabouts of any of them. The first five on the list came into Kinkaseki on October 26, 1944 from the camp at Taihoku. The last five came in on May 16, 1945 - Kern, Schneider, Brodsky and Encinas came from Shirakawa, while Paradise came from Taihoku.

Johnson, Raynis, Smith and Dean were sent to Japan in February 1945, and the other six finished out the war at the Kukutsu “jungle camp” near Taihoku.

We know that Pfc’s. Brodsky and Encinas were in hospital in Taihoku immediately after the Japanese surrender, so it is assumed that they did return to the States after the war.

If anyone knows any of these men, or can help us trace their whereabouts, please contact us right away. We want to tell them they haven’t been forgotten!