|
LIST
OF TAIWAN POW
CAMPS. . .
1. KINKASEKI #1 (Chinguashi) - found
2. TAICHU #2 (Taichung) - found
3. HEITO #3 (PingTung) - found
4. SHIRAKAWA #4 (Chiayi) - found
5. TAIHOKU #5 MOSAK (Taipei) - found
6. TAIHOKU #6 (Taipei) - found
7. KARENKO (Hualien) - found
8. TAMAZATO (Yuli) - found
9. KUKUTSU (Taipei) - found
10. OKA (Taipei) - “almost”
11. TOROKU - (Touliu) - found
12. INRIN - (Yuanlin) - found
13. INRIN TEMP. (Yuanlin) - found
14. TAKAO (Kaohsiung) - found
15. CHURON (Taipei) - found
|
TPCMS HOPES TO COMMEMORATE
HEITO POW CAMP # 3
WITH NEW POW MEMORIAL
(Update)
The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society is continuing negotiations
with the R.O.C. military to try to obtain permission to erect a
fourth POW memorial at the site of the former Heito Camp near the
city of PingTung in the southern part of Taiwan.
As our regular readers know, the site of the former camp - which
is a current R.O.C. army base, was discovered in September 1999
with the help of some local friends and one of the former camp guards
who lives in the PingTung area. Since that time we have visited
the camp on several occasions and have been warmly received by the
officers and base personnel.
All the applications have been forwarded to the appropriate departments
of the Taiwan military and civil government offices, along with
drawings of the memorial stone and diagrams of the location where
we would like to place the stone - just outside the front gate of
the army base which is the site of the former POW camp.
We are eagerly awaiting the response and if all goes well, we hope
to start work on the Heito POW Memorial stone within the next few
weeks. A dedication ceremony will follow at some future date.
We are grateful for all the interest and support that has been shown
for this memorial. The funds are all in place and we are ready to
begin as soon as permission is granted. Watch for further updates
on the memorial.
|
|
|
UPDATE ON POW CAMPS...
“One More To Go”
Fourteen out of the fifteen Taiwan POW camps have been found!
With the discovery of the two former camps at Inrin (see
story on page 6 ) that just leaves the Oka Camp in the hills
north of Taipei as the only former camp we have yet to find.
This camp has proved to be one of the most difficult and has
eluded us for the past three years. So much has changed in
the Taipei area over the past 56 years, and so little remains
of what was here back in 1945 that it has been difficult to
find many traces of the former site.
After all our research we are pretty certain of the general
area where the camp should be found, but finding the exact
site is difficult because the camp was located deep in the
forests high up on the mountain and is only accessible by
a 2 - 3 hour walk through the bush and over a mountain trail.
We have felt that we needed to have a pretty good idea as
to the exact location of the camp before venturing out to
find it.
Another problem that is unique to this camp is that we had
been unable to find any of the local residents who remembered
the POW camp or the prisoners. Usually it has been the local
Taiwanese who live in the area of the camps, who have helped
us to finally verify the camp locations, but try as we might
no-one seemed to have any knowledge in the areas which we
have searched so far.
However, we kept up the search and continued to question the
local residents and early in August we finally had stroke
of luck. We found an elderly lady in the village that remembered
the POWs and the approximate location of the camp. She put
it very close to the area that our research had earlier indicated,
so now we have some confirmation. Earlier another village
resident had told us that he remembered his father telling
him that there were ten soldiers buried by the temple in the
village.
So now, in mid-September, we are planning to make the trek
up into the mountain to verify the site of the Oka Camp. We’ll
have more to report in our next issue.
|
|
