SCHEDULE OF SOME OF THE SOCIETY EVENTS FOR 2025 . . .

     Sunday June 16th - American Airmen's Remembrance Service in memory of the American airmen who were held in the Taihoku (Taipei) Prison and those 14 men who were needlessly murdered there  just 58 days before the war ended. The service is held at the site of the old Taipei Prison Wall at Lane 44, Jinshan South Road Sec. 2, [ 金山南路2段44巷 ]  in downtown Taipei. It commences at 11 am and everyone is invited to join to honour those brave men who gave their lives for freedom.

     On Saturday August 16th at 6:00 pm, the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society will host the 18th Annual FEPOW Day event. The event takes place at the SPOT THEATRE – 18, Zhongshan North Road Sec. 2 in downtown Taipei. As usual, there will be a display of POW and military artifacts, a short memorial service to remember the POWs, and then a film relating to the POWs (TBA) will be shown. This year we will be focusing on the 80th Anniversary of the end of WWII.

     The 29th Remembrance Week event will be held this year from Wednesday November 5th to 12th, and all families and friends of the Taiwan POWs are invited to attend. The week-long event will feature visits to the former POW camps around the island and memorial services held at each one. The highlight is the Remembrance Day service held in the Taiwan POW Memorial Park on the site of the former Kinkaseki POW Camp on Sunday November 9th. We hope that we can have a number of overseas guests joining us, as well as good turnout from local friends and supporters again for this special commemorative historical anniversary. Overseas guests please contact the Society as soon as possible to register your interest in attending. Thank you.

Please plan to join us for as many of these events as possible to show your support to the former POWs and their families.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM!

80 YEARS AGO - MARCH, APRIL, MAY 1945 

     2025 is the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II, and we want to share with our readers a chronology of events that took place in 1945 relative to the Taiwan POWs, to help commemorate their suffering and sacrifice for our freedom. This feature will continue throughout the year in segments so be sure to visit the site often for updates.

Continuing our series on the events of 1945 which pertained to the Taiwan POWs and camps 80 years ago . . .

MARCH

5th – 43 POWs from Inrin Camp – most of whom had originally been in Taichu Camp, were moved to Toroku Camp which formerly contained American POWs off the hellship Hokusen Maru. They joined 18 Americans who had not gone to Japan. At this point Inrin Camp was closed. 

9th – The infamous Kinkaseki copper mine was closed as the ore could no longer get through to Japan for processing. The POWs then remained in the camp with their food rations cut awaiting an unknown fate.

                                              Old photo of part of the Kinkaseki Mine works  

11th – Heito Camp was closed and 146 men were moved from there to Taihoku Camp #6, and 13 were sent to Toroku Camp.

22nd – Following the close of the Kinkaseki mine earlier in the month, Major Wheeler and two medical orderlies took 86 of the sickest men to Shirakawa Camp. Upon reaching Taihoku, 36 more men were added and some were subsequently dropped off at Toroku Camp en route. By this time, and with the departure of most of the senior officers to Manchuria in October 1944, Shirakawa had become a sort of hospital camp. However, 15 of the former Kinkaseki men later died at Shirakawa from malnutrition, various diseases and overwork in the mine.

30th – 35 more men left Kinkaseki for Taihoku Camp 6 where they remained until the end of the war.

APRIL  

11th – Toroku Camp was closed and all the men were moved to Shirakawa Camp were they finished the war.

     In 2009 the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society erected a memorial to the men who were interned in Toroku Camp at the Gouba Elementary School near Douliou – the site of the former camp. (See our Spring-Summer 2009 newsletter for more info.)                           

                                                              The Toroku POW Camp Memorial 

     In late April the Japanese decided to re-locate all the remaining POWs at Kinkaseki Camp to the hills south of Taihoku. Kinkaseki first needed to be cleared of all supplies and stores and the POWs were detailed to do this task. For the next three weeks they carried material to the railhead in preparation for the move. A group of 100 men was selected to be the advance party to get the new camp ready for the rest of the men who would follow at the end of May and in June.

MAY

16th – The “advance party” left Kinkaseki and travelled to Taihoku and Shinten by train and then were forced to march 10 kms up into the hills carrying whatever supplies they could. A camp was set up at Kukutsu and the men began to build huts as there was no accommodation for them in the jungle environment.  

     At Kukutsu they were joined by two American doctors, one British doctor and three American medical orderlies, who were attached to the group at the last moment. Now there were medical personnel in the camp again.

 29th – A mock trial was held at the Japanese Military Court in Taihoku for fourteen of the American airmen who had been shot down over Taiwan in the previous eight months. Five of those were from the PB4Y-1 Liberator “Queen Bee” that had been shot down over Tung Kang Harbour on January 28th. Although the charges were all trumped up and they had no defense, all were found guilty of indiscriminate bombing and sentenced to death by the Japanese War Crimes Tribunal. They were returned to Taihoku Prison to await their execution.

 30th – The second group of men left Kinkaseki and joined the initial group at Kukutsu. In addition to helping with the construction of the huts, some of these men were also put to work digging up an old tea plantation on the hills near the camp and planting sweet potatoes and peanuts. This was terrible, back-breaking work given the near starvation conditions they were living in.

The site of the former Kukutsu Camp was discovered in 1997 and in 1999 the second POW memorial in Taiwan was erected to the men who suffered there. In 2004 the memorial was re-located to a better and more secure location and almost every year then since a memorial service is held there by the POW Society and the local residents of the area.

The Kukutsu POW Camp Memorial

  The next two months will be added on June 1st.

LEST WE FORGET!

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. 

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 this 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.

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

     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 80 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.

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!

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