THE TAIHOKU - OKA CAMP
In June of 1945, with the war going very badly for them and Taihoku (Taipei) being constantly bombed, the Japanese POW camp HQ in Taihoku decided to “recruit” a group of POWs to go into the mountains and build huts so that men could be transferred up there “for their safety”. In fact -as it is now known, the prisoners were to be killed up there when the Allies landed on Taiwan.
A party of 100 men left Taihoku Camp #6 on June 12 and spent all day hiking up into the mountains to where the camp was to be located. They were billetted at a school while they finished the first two huts, and then on July 1, they were moved into this new camp where they had little food, and had to sleep on the ground in the huts.
On July 2nd 50 more men came “up the hill” to add to the already overcrowded camp. A third hut was finished but the food got worse. Most of the men were sick and suffered from malaria, beri-beri, fatigue and beatings from the guards. By July 18 more than 100 were so sick they were unfit for work. On August 7 only 38 men reported for work - the rest were too weak or ill to even stand up. Ten men died in the camp - from starvation, disease and beatings, and of those who had gone up to OKA Camp, seven more would die within days of their return to the main camp at Taihoku after the war’s end.
On August 21 - a week after peace had been declared - the men of OKA Camp returned to the main holding camp in Taihoku where they awaited rescue by the Allied forces coming in. The hardships the men suffered are chronicled in several POW accounts we have received, and this is just one more, formerly unknown story of the unspeakable cruelty of the Japanese towards the POWs during WW II. More will be told!

TAIHOKU CAMP #6 - GETTING CLOSER!
The location of Taihoku Camp #6 is getting more clear every week as information continues to come in from various sources. Both former POWs overseas and local Taiwanese friends and supporters have helped to shed more light on the whereabouts of this main POW site through contacts made over the past few months.
During the POWs’ visit this past November, we took them sightseeing one day and later went for a drive in the vicinity where we believe the #6 Camp is located. To our surprise we found the area had been cleared of the former old military buildings which had previously occupied the site, and that the gate to the area had been left open. We seized upon the opportunity to go inside the compound for a closer look. Once inside, and with the opportunity to assess the location from a perspective not thus afforded, I felt sure that this was either the site of the former camp - or very close to it.
We took some photos of the area - just in case, and now plan to go back and try to find someone living in the vicinity who might have remembered the camp or the POWs.
Finding the location of this main camp is of prime importance as so much of the Taiwan POWs’ story revolves around it. Taihoku #6 was the camp where approximately half of the first group of British POWs from the hellship ‘England Maru’ were sent on first arriving in Taiwan. Many of the men from this group, including Dr. Wheeler, were sent to Kinkaseki in relief of the men who had died or who were too ill to work.
Also, men passed through this camp from most of the other camps on Taiwan either on their way to Japan, or as the war drew to a close. We currently have 24 living survivors who spent part of their POW life in this camp, as well as many more who passed through, and these men are all eager to hear about our discovery of their former camp. We won’t disappoint you men!

We won’t disappoint you men!