Locations of 13 POW camps are all over the island. The prisoners would have known they were ‘somewhere in Japan’ but I wonder if any knew it was Formosa?
Nearby was the copper mine where very weak and sick men slaved their lives away under worse than horrific conditions described at this web site:
http://www.powtaiwan.org/The%20Camps/camps_detail.php?Kinkaseki-POW-Camp-1&name=Kinkaseki
A plaque at the camp listing the number of survivors seemed optimistic or an error.
THE FULL STORY
To balance the situation. The highly destructive fire-bombing of Japan during WWII – would not have helped improve attitudes between both sides. Robert S. MacNamarra (Secretary of Defense under JFK and LBJ) details the fire bombing destruction in his amazing interviews in the film “The Fog of War”, which every politician should be made to study. MacNamarra is a hero for telling his story before passing away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOCYcgOnWUM
(Relates to fire bombing of Japan – from The Fog of War – the American atrocity that nobody speak of).
It was not a one-sided war.I wonder what the 4,000 Aussies, British and Kiwi prisoners of war thought of Kinkaseki when they arrived in November 1942 – captured from the fall of Singapore.
They probably guessed they were in Japan – not the Japan we know today but the island of Formosa.
Here they became slave labor at a gold and copper mine. A monument says 10% of them died, I think someone got that wrong – more like 10% survived.
Most of those old soldiers never forgave the harsh, cruel treatment received from the Japanese.
I took this picture wondering what they thought of the place all the years ago.
A nightmare on earth?
Nearby is the sea and a stunning view of a mountain. The remains of the mine still exist.
Copper mine where Prisoners of War worked under shocking conditions
It would be good for the marine environment to stop that soil washing into the sea.
(above) Japanese Colonial period in Taiwan – click to enlarge any picture
