This year, on the 75th anniversary of the start of World War II, George Reynolds was the only former prisoner of war (POW) able to make an overseas trip to Jinguashi (金瓜石) in New Taipei City.
At an annual memorial service for World War II POWs, the British veteran was good-humored with the local press, leaning in to catch questions and replying with a gentle and professorial air.
He showed off a black-and-white photograph of a young man on an artillery horse.
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
“That’s me!” he said, as if he wasn’t sure anybody would believe it. “I was 18 then. I am 96 now.”
TWO YEARS IN KINKASEKI
Jinguashi, called Kinkaseki during World War II, was once the base of the largest copper mine operation of the Japanese empire. It was also home to one of the most notorious POW camps located in Taiwan.
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
From 1942 to 1945, the Japanese army maintained at least 15 labor camps in Taiwan to hold Allied POWs.
At Kinkaseki, captured men were used in mine shafts considered too unstable for civilians to enter, according to the non-profit POW Memorial Society of Taiwan.
Kinkaseki POWs worked 12-hour days inside tunnels that were either too hot or too cold, below a low ceiling that dripped acidic water. Their supervisors were Japanese, as well as Taiwanese recruited from the area.
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
Reynolds was held at Kinkaseki for two years. In 1942, the 24-year-old was captured in Singapore. Along with other higher-ranking British officers, Reynolds was shipped to Taiwan, where he worked for several months at the Taihoku POW camp before being transferred to Kinkaseki.
The latter camp was located along a mountain range on the north coast. Each day, emaciated POWs trudged through tall grass, usually under wind and rainfall, to reach the mine at the base of the mountain.
“Back then there were no roads in these mountains,” Reynolds said. “We built our own. You do it by sliding!”
The men were fed a calorie intake too low to sustain their weight, he said. When the weight of a prisoner dropped below 38kg, he was labeled as a member of a “thin party” and transferred to another labor camp.
“About three months before the war ended, I was in one of the thin parties, and I was sent to Shirakawa.”
By the time Reynolds left Kinkaseki, he was rake-thin at 35kg. At Shirakawa, he contracted typhoid and was quarantined for about a month before being sent to the farms to work. Then one day, an American medical officer arrived.
“He flew in, ascertained what was needed and after a week or so, there was a heavy sound in the air. It was planes,” Reynolds said.
The war was over. Led out by American officers, the prisoners were taken to Keelung Harbor, where they boarded ships to the USS Santee, an aircraft carrier.
“Then Santee took us to the Philippines, and I flew home in stages to England. It took me 33 days to get home,” he said.
WAR AND PEACE
Reynolds went on to become a devoted husband and father of six, but the adjustment back to life in Newport required faith, he said.
“My mother was a Christian lady and she taught me Christian beliefs. I’m a God-fearing man and I put myself in his hands,” he said.
“When the war ended, I contemplated how should I now behave and I thought to myself, if I hate the Japanese now for what they’ve done, that hatred will be so deep it will be like a cancer and leech me away and I won’t enjoy the rest of my life.”
At the ceremony on Sunday, he was eager to connect with guests. He had advice: Remember the past. Always strive to serve your fellow man.
Since 1997, the POW Memorial Society of Taiwan has held an annual memorial service for Allied soldiers at Jinguashi, and Reynolds has returned seven times to pay homage at the site of his traumatic memories.
“I decided that I would forgive but not forget,” he said. “And it is very nice to be here.”
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