Collecting for a Taiwan POW Museum … by Michael Hurst MBE

“Collectors are the preservers of history and passionate seekers of knowledge”

When I first started visiting the site of the former Kinkaseki POW Camp back in 1997 I realized that there wasn’t much left from the days when the POWs occupied the site and worked the mine. Like everything else in Taiwan, so much has changed over the years in the interests of modernization and economic development. However there were still a few evidences of those former times – it just took some digging (literally) to uncover them.

In September of that year I spent 10 days at Chinguashi doing an archeological survey of the campsite and area around the mine. I had help from some of the local people who knew exactly where things had been in the “old days”, and they were very helpful in my search for the truth of the past.

During my excavations I found a number of artifacts remaining from the POWs’ time at the camp. The director of the local historical association in Chinguashi asked me if I would consider putting some of the items into a new community museum that they were planning to build in the future, and would I also tell the story of the POWs who had come to work in the mine. I readily agreed, and so began a seven-year odyssey to collect as much information and as many artifacts as possible to better help tell the story of the Taiwan POWs.

Being a “rat” character in the traditional 12-animal Chinese zodiac makes it natural that I should be a collector. All my life – since I was a boy – I have been collecting things – stamps, coins, seashells, hockey cards, antiques, military memorabilia – you name it, so this was nothing new to me – just a new line of things to collect! The POWs and their families have loaned me many articles, photos, diaries etc. to copy, and I have amassed a huge amount of data from archives around the world, but what about POW artifacts and those items that were used by the Allied and Japanese military. I began to search antique markets around the island but there wasn’t much remaining from those days of 60 years ago.

One day someone told me about Ebay on the internet and I checked it out. In the several years that I have been watching it since then, I have picked up many wonderful and interesting items. Everything from badges to backpacks, medals to medical kits and bandages, army blankets to bayonets, mess kits to old medicine bottles, and much, much more. It has been exciting to find these interesting items and get them for the collection. Every year in November at our Remembrance Week POW Banquet I take some of the best items out and put them on display for those in attendance to see, and every year the collection – and the display, has grown.

I have met some wonderful people on Ebay too during the course of my collecting. I always tell those I buy from what the items are for, and many have replied saying what a great cause we are working for. Some have even offered to donate the item or the cost of shipping. Others have written back with new items that they have found letting me know they are up for sale. I have met many people who had fathers or brothers or uncles who served in the war and they are grateful that we are doing what we can to help remember them and their sacrifice.

So what to do with all this stuff I have collected? About a year ago I was approached by the Taipei County government to see what I had collected, and if I would loan some articles to them for the new museum that is presently under construction in Chinguashi. It is going to be primarily a mining museum, but they realize the importance of the POWs’ story and they want to have at least a small display representing this era of the town’s past, so that this little-known aspect of Taiwan’s history can be brought out. Since there will not be room for all of my artifacts in the main mining museum, I have been hoping to find another location to create a permanent “Taiwan POW Museum” which will tell the story of all of the POW camps on the island and be able to display all the artifacts, photos and documents that I have collected.

Just recently the government has been talking with me again on this matter, and we are now close to confirming a location for a larger, permanent museum with their support. It is wonderful to see the care and interest being shown by many in the government and the community, and I am grateful for the support I am receiving to this end. In the future I also hope to put many of the artifacts from our collection on display in a “virtual POW museum” on our website for everyone to enjoy.

Exciting days lie ahead as we push forward with our goal of making this story of the Taiwan POWs known in Taiwan – and around the world. The new museum in Chinguashi will open in August of this year and perhaps in another year so will the “TAIWAN PRISONER OF WAR MUSEUM”. We’re working hard toward that goal.

ARE YOU A CHILD OR FAMILY MEMBER OF A FORMER
FAR EAST PRISONER OF WAR?

If so, then there is an organization you should know about. COFEPOW (Children and Families of Far East Prisoners of War) was founded in November 1997, and is an association dedicated to bringing the children and families of former Far East POWs together, to remembering the men who were POWs in the Far East during World War II, and also to building a permanent memorial to those wonderful men who gave so much for our freedom. The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society supports COFEPOW, its aims and its work.

For more information on COFEPOW; how it may be of assistance to you as a FEPOW family member, and how you can have a part in its work, please contact: Mrs. Carol Cooper, 20 Burgh Rd., Gorleston, Gt. Yarmouth, Norfolk NR31 8BE /

Tel. 01493 664116 or visit their website at www.cofepow.org.uk