As mentioned in our last issue, there had been evidence of another temporary POW camp in TAKAO - the modern day city of Kaohsiung at the southern end of the island. It was known that POWs were held there while awaiting transhipment to Japan, but with the discovery of a POW in the States who was actually interned in the camp for nine weeks, we added this site to the list as a temporary POW camp. We had a good idea as to the exact location of the camp from a drawing that was obtained after the war from one of the POWs, and also from a U.S. Air Force aerial reconnaisance photo taken in late 1944.
      On January 4, armed with the available information we had, Michael Hurst set off for Kaohsiung on the early morning train, arriving around noon. He was met by Li Su Mei, who has been interested in the Society’s work for several years, and who has arranged some TV coverage of our work.
      They set off for the port area as that is where the camp had been located - right down at the waterfront in a warehouse on the warf. They rode around for some time searching the harbour area for clues as to the whereabouts of the docks they were looking for. Being temporarily stimied, they dropped in at the local county government office to see if they could get some additional help.
      The district office staff were most helpful and provided an up-to-date map for the area of the harbour where they were searching. When Michael overlaid his old maps with the current one, the location became readily apparent.       Positive identification of the location of the area was made and after thanking the staff, they set off for the harbour again.
      Reaching the eastern side of the Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone, they were able to look across the

The site of the former Takao POW Camp at Kaohsiung

waters of the harbour and see where the location of the former campsite had been on the opposite shoreline. The warehouses and warves were all gone - and in their place stood a fertilzer factory and Taiwan Sugar Corp. storage facilities.
      Visits were made to both the Taiwan Sugar Corp. location and also that of Taiwan Fertilizer Co., where more information about the postwar development of the area was obtained. It seems that the area had been heavily bombed by the Allies, and that most of the buildings and warehouses along that side of the harbour had been either destroyed or damaged and were pulled down after the war. Subsequently these factories had been built in their place.
      While there is nothing at all left from those former times, it is still good to have identified the location of the old camp. Our special thanks to Li Su Mei for all her assistance in helping us find the site of the Takao POW Camp. That brings the number of camps we have located to twelve - just three more to go!