Formosa, Karenko, Kamikazes, POW, Active WW2 Sub

Hi Colonel,

I notice your posts go back a few years but hopefully you still check in now and again. You have probably already seen this site

http://www.powtaiwan.org/links.php


but in the event you haven't, there is a lot of interesting information. I found it interesting because my father was a Sonarman 2c aboard the USS Brister DE327 and was aboard when it and several other ships evacuated hundreds of POWs from camps on Taiwan. My father is gone now but he remembered that particular experience very clearly all his adult life.

 

are you still in hualien??

 

Hi Col. FOG,
Greetings from Taipei! There was one big POW camp in New Taipei and a memorial was built near its site. See: Never Forgotten :: The Story of the Taiwan POW Camps
I think the Japanese used the prisoners for copper mining and planned to kill them all before the surrender, but the camp commander thought better of risking his head over it. A lot of the prisoners, captured by the Japanese from Singapore and other battles early war, died from starvation or abuse.
Regrettably, most Taiwanese don't have the faintest with regard to the island's history during the war, as both the population that lived under Japanese colonial government and the nationalist government supporters have reasons to forget that history.

 

Greetings to Taipei from Hualien. Yes, I still live here.
Re: Never Forgotten run by Michael Hurst. I am the one who found Karenko Camp for him and his society. It was the final one on their search list.

 

Yes. I still live in Hualien. Nice to meet you.

 

The train ride from Taipei to Hualien (Karenko) is lovely, running along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. If you are short on time, take a one-day round trip flight and get some even better views!