MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

                         A Special Christmas message and gift to all our friends and supporters.

                                              A World War 2 Radio Christmas !

     We invite you to share a 34 minute special video of radio programs which were heard at home and by the armed forces overseas via short wave radio during the Christmas seasons 1942 - 1944. The video is about old time radio, World War 2, and Christmas. We hope it will help folks to see what Christmas was like for the men fighting in World War II and what Christmas meant to them. I know it will bring back a ton of memories for so many of our readers                                                    Please enjoy - click on the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehQgAFem9iM  

 P.S. The POWs in the Far East never got any of the Christmas packages or parcels seen in this video.

FALL - WINTER 2024 NEWSLETTER NOW AVAILABLE . . .  

The Society's Fall-Winter 2024 newsletter "Never Forgotten" is up on our website now.

CLICK HERE for the direct link to the page -

It is also available from the link on the 'homepage' below in the "What's New on the Website" section.

You can access this newsletter - and all of our previous ones, by looking in the Society Section of our website and clicking on the item in the newsletters box.

Thank you for your continued interest and support for our work of remembering the Taiwan Prisoners of War. 

REMEMBRANCE DAY 2024  

     Sunday November 10th was the date for this year’s “Remembrance Day” service sponsored by the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society and assisted this year by the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei.

     The service - which was attended by more than 150 people, commenced at 11:00 am in the Taiwan POW Memorial Park in Jinguashi with a traditional New Zealand Maori ceremonial welcome put on by Tina Wilson of the New Zealand Trade Office and her family.

     Speeches from New Zealand director Mark Pearson were followed by addresses from representatives of the Veterans Affairs Council and Veterans Association of the ROC. The Society director reflected on 'Remembrance' .

     This year we were honoured to have six family members of the former POWs with us for the entire Remembrance Week event sponsored by the Society and they did readings and spoke of what the trip back has meant to them. In Flander's Fields was rendered and the service part finished with a message and prayer of remembrance.

     Wreaths were once again laid on the memorial despite the rain, Last Post, two minutes silence and Rouse was played to bring the event to a close. Once again so many folks came up afterward and said how much they enjoyed our simple yet sincere ceremony. This is only fitting and what those soldiers, sailors and airmen deserve for their service.

     Following the service, those in attendance were invited to gather together for a picnic lunch in the nearby community centre and a nice time of fellowship was had by all.     

     Everyone is welcome to join us for next year’s  event and we hope that many will come out to remember and honour the men to whom we owe a debt that can never be repaid. 

2025 - ANOTHER EXCITING YEAR AHEAD - 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF WWII

- A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT TAIWAN TO REMEMBER AND HONOUR A LOVED ONE!

GOOD NEWS - our POW Camp Tours program has been up and running again for the past two years. We have run a number of tours - for overseas POW family members, military organizations and researchers, as well as local residents and schools. Now those who have had to put off a tour over the past several years because of covid can once more make plans to visit Taiwan!

     We are once more accepting applications for POW camp tours and we highly recommend that persons wishing to visit Taiwan do so during our Remembrance Week event which is held every year in mid-November in the week around Remembrance Day. At that time we organize visits to many of the camps and arrange memorial services. Participants will be able to fellowship with other family members in a common purpose of honouring and remembering their loved ones. Also, the costs per person are usually less when we have a number of guests attending the event as they are divided equally among the participants. Applications for next year's 80th Anniversary of the end of WWII Remembrance Week event - which will be held from November 5th to 12th inclusive are now open. Please contact us early to ensure you have a part in this exciting program.

     If November is not convenient, then visitors may come at pretty well any time throughout the year - subject to the availability of the Society director to host the tour. This needs to be worked out well in advance by contacting the Society and giving proposed dates of the desired visit.

     We invite anyone who is interested in a tour to consult the 'POW CAMP TOURS' page on the website and we look forward to hearing from you.

     "Taking a pilgrimage is important for a variety of reasons. For those who lost family and loved ones on the battlefields or in prison camps, or for those who had family veterans who returned, a pilgrimage is a way to shorten the distance between home and the site of their conflict. For people who only connect with the battlefields and prison camps through history books, visiting these sites is an opportunity to more fully understand the sacrifices that were made by many for the freedom that we continue to enjoy today".

     Here is a comment noted from one couple who took part in our program... "“My wife and I were taken around the camps by the POW Society. It was an incredibly emotional trip. We planned to be there on Remembrance Sunday and the ceremonies they had were incredible. We met a whole group of other people whose family members had been prisoners of war like my father and now we meet up regularly.”

     More reviews of our guests' experiences can be found at the end of the 'POW CAMP TOURS' page on the website.

'NEVER FORGOTTEN' - THE TAIWAN POWS' STORY. . . 

     After 24 years of research and more than three years in production, we are happy to introduce the long-awaited book by Society director, Michael Hurst MBE, titled – 'Never Forgotten. . . The story of the Japanese Prisoner of War Camps in Taiwan during World War II.'

     It is the only book ever written that provides the complete story of all the Taiwan Prisoner of War camps and the men who were interned in them.

Description: Softcover Book: 23.5 cm x 16.5 cm (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch) format, with cover photo featuring the sculpture of the two POWs in the Taiwan Prisoner of War Memorial Park in Jinguashi, Taiwan. The book contains 620 pages of text and is lavishly illustrated with 850 photos, POW artwork and ephemera (many in colour). Printed on high-quality glossy paper, they visually enhance this epic saga making its 32 chapters and appendices come alive for the reader.

Summary: This highly researched history of the little-known Japanese POW camps on Taiwan in World War II features the accounts of former Taiwan prisoners of war through numerous interviews, the collection of materials supplied by them and their families, and thousands of hours spent poring over their diaries and letters, as well as other material from war records, regimental diaries and archives. It is their story, told in their words from what they have shared with the author, and that which was discovered during 24 years of research. This is a must read for anyone interested in the history of World War II and the prisoners of war in the Far East.

For more details, comments and reviews on the book, kindly click on 'THE BOOK' page in the menu on the left. 

Note: The sales of 'Never Forgotten' have been outstanding. The first edition has sold out and we are now in the process of printing a second run.  An announcement will be sent out and put on the website when the book becomes available. Those wanting a copy should contact the Society from overseas or locally in Taiwan by email to request to be placed on a waiting list for a book. Thank you.

AMERICA'S DOUBLE STANDARD EXPOSED

U.S. deports 95-year-old who was a Nazi concentration camp guard

Excerpts from an article by LI COHEN / CBS NEWS

      A 95-year-old man who was a Nazi concentration camp guard during WWII was deported from the U.S. to Germany in 2021. Friedrich Karl Berger, who lived in Tennessee, was deported "for participating in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution" while serving at a concentration camp in 1945, the Justice Department said.

     A 2020 trial by the Department of Justice found that Berger served the Nazi regime at a Neuengamme sub-camp near Meppen, Germany, during the Holocaust. Many of the prisoners who were Jewish, Russian, Dutch and Polish, were held at the camp in the winter of 1945. "The conditions were "atrocious", as the prisoners were forced to labor outdoors "to the point of exhaustion and death," the DOJ said. On the day that the camp was evacuated, there were 1,773 imprisoned at the camp. 

     Berger worked at the camp until the Nazis evacuated it in March 1945, at which time the prisoners were forced to go on a death march to the main Neuengamme camp. "The two-week transfer was made in inhumane conditions", according to the DOJ, "and 70 people who were imprisoned died in the process". 

     Berger is the 70th person identified as a Nazi persecutor to be removed from the U.S., according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

     Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tae Johnson said the department "will never cease to pursue those who persecute others." "This case exemplifies the steadfast dedication of both ICE and the Department of Justice to pursue justice and to hunt relentlessly for those who participated in one of history's greatest atrocities," Johnson said, "no matter how long it takes."

Ed. Now this begs the question, "WHAT ABOUT THE JAPANESE WHO COMMITTED SIMILAR OR WORSE ATROCITIES AGAINST AMERICANS AND THEIR ALLIES IN ASIA IN WORLD WAR II ?" 

     Why over all these many decades since World War II, has the US Department of Justice never "pursued those Japanese who persecuted others, or hunted relentlessly those who participated in another of history's greatest atrocities in Asia, no matter how long it took."? There is definitely a double standard being applied here.

     The war crimes trials held all across Asia after World War II were terribly flawed and lacking, and there is doubtless a huge difference and a double standard in the attitude of the US and the other Allied nations today regarding their belief in justice and their efforts to also right the many wrongs and atrocities committed against POWs and civilians in Asia in World War II. America and those other nations should hang their heads in shame for not properly ensuring that real "justice for all" - as their constitutions state, was done.

     In thousands of cases justice was never served for those who were tortured, starved, beaten and murdered in the "Asian Holocaust". It seems that it is too late for that to happen now, given the current world situation, but that doesn't mean that America and its Allies won't go down in history as glossing over some of the worst atrocities of all time.      LEST WE FORGET!

A WORD FROM A VETERAN FOR OUR TROUBLED TIMES . . .

     Here is a word to America - and to us all, from a WWII veteran – very fitting and timely for these days in which we live, and in which so many are suffering and dying from covid, racism, anarchy and tyranny.

      Lt. Sr. Grade S., TOM MORRIS, USNR, a member of Torpedo Bombing Squadron VB-80, on the USS Ticonderoga  served in the South Pacific – and had this to say about those troubled times and his wartime duty:

     “I think all of us, all of the United States, was almost to a man united during those years - and everybody in the country, was dedicated to one thing, and that was defeating our enemies: Germany and Japan. So all of us were just doing what we knew we had to do. We were all in the same boat.”

     Tom was one - a part of the ‘Greatest Generation’, who loved and fought for his country and did everything he could to protect her and make sure she stayed strong, united and FREE. May we never forget their example or their sacrifice!

     Like in WWII when our countries were threatened and attacked by enemies, everyone knuckled down, sacrificed and worked together for everyone's good and that of their country. It seems that spirit no longer exists in so many of our countries today. We have become so selfish in our hearts and lives that we no longer care for others or stand together for what is right to defeat these enemies of our nations.

     What a shame that so many millions in America as well as in Canada, the UK, the EU and other freedom-loving countries, couldn’t embody that same spirit today, and all pull together as we fight an even greater enemy – the world-wide scourge of the covid virus, and also the tyranny and the threats of war in Asia and Europe and the domestic mess our countries are in today. May God grant us the strength and the courage and the unity we need in these dire times.

If we are united, there is no way that we can lose.  If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win!

75 YEARS LATER - THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR II AND JAPAN TODAY. . . 

2020 was the 75th Anniversary of the end of World War II, and the following is a collection of articles and comments regarding the postwar position of the Japanese government and also those of the various allied governments in the aftermath of World War II. Some of these facts will be shocking to readers, but they are included here so that all may know of the corruption and collaboration that has gone on in the 75 years since the end of the world's greatest conflict. For example . . . 

* The United States granted immunity to Emperor Hirohito and Prince Asaka - who ordered the Rape of Nanking and also the massacre of doctors, nurses and patients in the hospitals in Hong Kong. Evidence shows that General Douglas MacArthur and his senior aides and Japanese high court officials schemed to fix testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials so as not to implicate Hirohito and other members of the Imperial Family.

* MacArthur also managed to have Generals Homma and Yamashita captured and brought to mock trials very soon after the Japanese surrendered - even before the war crimes trials were properly set up and convened . . .

CLICK HERE to read the full story from the Articles and Stories section.

POW WEBSITE PHOTOS - MORE WANTED

     Over the past 25 years we have gathered photos of more than 800 former Taiwan prisoners of war and have added them to our listing of the 4,370 men who were interned in the various camps in Taiwan. Now, in addition to listing the POW’s name, rank, regiment and the camps where he was interned, a photo of the man has been added to that listing where available. Also, if the man died as a POW in Taiwan we have included a copy of his grave photo from the Honour Roll. We hope this new format will help these men to be remembered more personally with the addition of their photos, as this is what our site is really all about.

     We are still looking for more photos of the former Taiwan POWs - hopefully in uniform taken around wartime, but photos taken later after the war are acceptable too. We invite you to contact us and share photos of your Taiwan POW relative to add to our collection which will help us to further ensure that they are not forgotten.

If the photos are seen, then the men who are in the photographs are remembered.

Our Honour Roll consists of the names of all the men who died while POWs resident in camps on Taiwan during World War II.

Click to view Honour Roll