DRIVER ERNEST PARKER - ROYAL CORPS OF SIGNALS

In our last issue we appealed for help from our readers for information concerning Driver Ernest Parker of the Royal Corps of Signals. His wartime bride, now Mrs. Marjorie Garner, had been searching for years for any information on where he had been held as a POW and how he had died.
In response to our request, former Taiwan POW, and my good friend Maurice Cunningham, sent a note saying that he remembered an Ernest Parker - a tall, dark, quiet chap who was with him in the camp at Taichu. This was the key that we needed, and on doing some further research we were able to learn more of Ernest’s story.

In November 1942 he was transported to Taiwan and landed at the port of Takao (now Kaohsiung). From there he was moved by train overnight to the Taichu Camp in the central part of the island.

The work at Taichu was hard, back-breaking work. The prisoners were assigned the task of digging a flood diversion channel in the river bottom to keep the annual floodwaters of the monsoons and typhoons from washing away the road and rail bridges which spanned the river near the camp. The men worked long hours in the hot sun with no protection, little rest or water, and the work of moving tons of rock, stone and earth was all done by hand. The POWs dug and scraped and carried the rock and gravel from the river bed using only primitive tools - a chunkel and a two-handled bamboo basket. If the daily quota of rock was not removed, then the POWs were severely beaten up at the end of the day.

Marjorie & Ernest Parker on their wedding day in 1941.

According to Maurice, Ernest was injured at work on one occasion and was in terrible pain. The Japs did not allow any medicine or treatment of the wounded - the camp doctors could only do their best to help alleviate the suffering of the men.
When it came time for bed every night, the POWs had to post a guard that changed every hour, to monitor the movements of the men - to the latrines etc. Maurice said that Ernest took more than his share of watches because he couldn’t sleep anyway due to the pain, thus permitting his fellow POWs to get a longer and better night’s rest.

In the spring of 1944 torrential rains swept down from the mountains and wiped out both of the bridges. The men, needless to say, were overjoyed, despite all the work that they had put in.
The floods also threatened the camp and part of it was actually flooded. The prisoners were moved out to another location in a small village nearby temporarily, and then as soon as they could be organised, most of the POWs were moved to Heito Camp in the south of the island. Some who were too sick or injured to make the journey remained behind, but most of the men were sent to Heito. (As far as we know, there were no deaths at the temporary camp where those sick men remained, so it has to be assumed that Ernest went to Heito with the bulk of the men and that is likely where he died.)

At Heito Camp the POWs worked at clearing old river-bottom land of rocks and stones so that sugar cane could be planted in the area. It was hot, back-breaking work too as they had to pick the rocks by hand, load them into bamboo baskets and then carry the baskets to be emptied into waiting railroad cars. Again, if the quota of rail cars was not filled at the end of the day, a bashing would occur.

Another big problem at Heito Camp was malaria. Most of the men who were in the camp at one time or another contracted malaria and suffered terribly with it. Many of the men did die from the disease, as well as from malnutrition and overwork. It is hard to say what may have caused Ernest’s death - it could have been from any one of these things. It seems though, from the date of his death, that he didn’t last too long after coming to Heito Camp so it might have been malaria in addition to the hard labour, that took him on September 26, 1944 at age 24 years!.

Marjorie and her daughter Christine were with us last November, and it is really wonderful that they were able to visit the very site of the camp where it has turned out that Ernest was held for a time. They saw the camp and the river area, and also took part in the dedication of the Taichu POW Memorial.

What a fitting ending to the story, and I’m so glad that we were able to have a part in helping to bring this story to a close after all these years.