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Page 7

Spring/Summer 2000

MORE POW CAMPS...?

While sorting through a new bunch of records obtained from the National Archives in Washington and also from some other sources, I have recently discovered that there may have been a couple of other small temporary POW camps on Taiwan during late 1944 and early 1945.

In addition, we have recently been in contact with the family of an American ex-POW who has supplied names and information of which a part pertains to one of these other camps.

It seems that only Americans were held in these camps, and only for a short period of time. The name of one of the camps was “TOROKU” - not to be confused with Taroko - the popular scenic spot on Taiwan’s East Coast. Toroku is the Japanese word for the present town of Touliu. The other camp is reported to have been located somewhere near the present city of Yunlin in South-central Taiwan.

So with these additional possibilities, the number of Taiwan POW camps could now total 12.

We are continuing our search for information on these two new discoveries, and would ask if anyone has any knowledge of the whereabouts of either of these two camps or any men who were interned in them, to please contact us as soon as possible. Thank you!

UPCOMING EVENTS. . .

Be sure to mark the weekend of November 18 - 19, 2000 on your calendars and in your date books. That is the date of the annual POW Remembrance Weekend which will feature a FEPOW memorial dinner on Saturday the 18th and a memorial service at the POW monument at Chinguashi on Sunday the 19th. Plan to be with us for this great event. More details to follow.

FROM “DOWN UNDER”

We have recently had word that Bert Martin, the ex-Kinkaseki POW that we had found just a couple of months ago, passed away on April 29. He had been in poor health for some time and was in a nursing home. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family.

Our Australia rep, Sid Dodds had been in contact with Bert by letter, but another ex-Kinkaseki POW, Ray Goodman, was able to visit him personally as they lived close to each other. Ray reports that Bert was thrilled with the news of the memorial and so happy to know that he and his mates had not been forgotten.

On another note, Ray and his wife are hoping to come to Taiwan this November for the annual Remembrance Weekend, and could possibly be bringing the widow of another ex-Kinkaseki men who died at Heito camp in 1944 after leaving the mine.

In recent weeks Sid has also been in contact with former POW Harry Leslie, who was not at Kinkaseki but was in several of the other camps - including the OKA Camp in Taipei.

Harry has done a lot of research and writing about the POW camps on Taiwan in connection with the Australia War Memorial in Canberra, and is a storehouse of knowledge on the POWs. He has already shared a lot of his material with us.

After hearing of our work, and although nearly completely blind, Harry wants very much to come to Taiwan to visit again the places of his former imprisonment.

Harry is also helping Sid in his efforts to find the former Taiwan POWs. He has many contacts from his years of fellowship with the veterans’ associations in Australia, and we are hoping he might be able to lead us to many other ex-POWs.

All of the work that Sid has done is finally starting to bear some fruit, but that’s what it takes - lots of patience and preseverance. In addition, there are still a lot of people who have never heard of the hardships suffered by the men in the Taiwan POW camps, and we certainly intend to rectify that in the days to come.

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE TAIWAN POW CAMPS AND THE POWS?

If your club, school or organization would like to know more about the prisoners of war, the POW camps on Taiwan and the work of the TPCMS, we would be very pleased to come to a meeting of your group and give a talk and show pictures and artifacts from our research. It is one of our aims to share the POWs’ story with as many as we can, so that more people in Taiwan will know the story too and be able to better understand a part of their history.

For further information, please contact us.
Tel. (02) 8660-8438 Fax. (02) 8660-8439 Email. society@powtaiwan.org