Fall / Winter 2002

Volume 5 No 1

Spring 2004

LIST OF TAIWAN POW CAMPS. . . all found !

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 ) - found
11. TOROKU - (Touliu) - found
12. INRIN - (Yuanlin) - found
13. INRIN TEMP. (Yuanlin) - found
14. TAKAO ( Kaohsiung ) - found
15. CHURON ( Taipei ) - found

UPDATE ON THE POW CAMP SEARCH PROJECT...

We are so pleased to finally be able to announce that we have found all fifteen of the former Japanese Prisoner of War camps on Taiwan.

It has taken seven years and a huge amount of time, effort, expense and work, and now one of the main tasks that we had set out to do has been completed.

Thus the second major aim of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society is fulfilled, and we can now devote our time to other areas of research and the promotion of the Taiwan POWs’ story.

That is not to say that we are going to forget about the camps. We have just recently completed the relocation of the former Kukutsu POW Memorial stone (see article on back page) and are continuing negotiations with the Taiwan Government and the military regarding erecting a POW Memorial near the site of the Heito Camp in the south of Taiwan. As mentioned in our last newsletter, it is taking longer than anticipated, but we have been encouraged by recent developments and are optimistic that we should be able to get the approval to erect this fourth POW memorial stone on the site of the Heito Camp sometime this year.

There is still much work that needs to be done to ensure that what went on in those camps is known and recorded for history, and that the memory of the men who were interned in those camps is not forgotten.

OKA CAMP. . . found at last

(The background on Oka Camp from our earlier issue. . .

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 in the main camp could be transferred up there “for their safety”. In fact, as it is now known, the prisoners were to be killed there when the Allies landed on Taiwan.

A party of around 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 billeted at a school while they finished the first two huts, and then they were moved into this new camp where they had to sleep on the ground in the huts and had very little food to eat

On July 2 nd, 50 more men came “up the hill” to add to the already overcrowded state. A third hut was finished but the food got worse. Most of the men were sick and suffered from fatigue and beatings from the guards. By July 18 more than 100 were so sick they were unfit for work. Ten men died in the camp - from starvation and beatings, and of those who went up to OKA Camp, seven more would die within days of their return to the camp at Taihoku at the war’s end.)

During the past couple of years we had found the village with the school and the temple where the ten men who died were buried, but after searching for almost three years, we could still not find the exact location of the camp. As we searched, we did find one location that seemed to be a very likely place, as it was about the only spot in the area that was large enough and level enough to house that many men.

The POWs also spoke of a stream and waterfall that ran near the camp, and there was one that flowed down the mountain just to the side of the site we found. We weren’t sure this was the waterfall that the men had referred to, so last year on my trip to the UK I met with former Oka Camp survivor Maurice Cunningham and showed him photos of the area and the stream in particular. While not 100% sure, he did say that it looked like the area, and the stream was much like the one they used to wash in, so with that confirmation and since there is no other location even close to that in the whole area, we have come to the conclusion that this has to be the site of the former camp. This photo below shows an overall view of the site, which is partially farmed by a nearby local resident who knew nothing of the former POW camp.