The hills of Jinguashih (金瓜石), Taipei County, reverberated to the sound of bagpipes yesterday as six former prisoners of war (POW) returned to the site of their incarceration for this year’s Remembrance Weekend service.
The six were among the more than 4,000 Allied POWs interned at 16 camps around Taiwan after they were captured by the Japanese army during World War II.
Jinguashih was the site of the infamous Kinkaseki “Hell Camp,” where the POWs were put to work as laborers in hellish conditions down a copper mine.
PHOTO: RICHARD HAZELDINE, TAIPEI TIMES
Medals proudly pinned to their chests and chins held high, Jack Fowler, Ken Pett, George Reynolds, Bill Roy, Stan Vickerstaff and Stan Wood stepped off the buses to take their places among family, friends, former servicemen and interested onlookers who had gathered in the picturesque town to pay their respects to these surviving heroes and the hundreds of other prisoners who weren’t so fortunate.
The men, all British, sat on the front row remembering the hardship they suffered and the camaraderie that pulled them through it during the remembrance service as a mixture of prayers, poems and readings were performed in honor of all those who have sacrificed so much.
The former POWs and the various representatives present then laid wreaths before heading off to lunch where the men recounted tales of their ordeal in the camp.
Fowler, 88, from Lowestoft, who along with his wife Pearl and daughter Bridget Slater was making his third trip back to the scene of his imprisonment, recalled over lunch how the men used to con the Japanese guards at the mine by filling the bogies with useless rock to ensure they didn’t get a beating for not working hard enough.
Even though they suffered so much, the men admit they find it hard to stay away.
Reynolds, 91, making his sixth trip back to Taiwan, said he had developed an affinity for the place.
“Every year I say to myself that I won’t bother anymore, but when this time of the year comes around I find myself coming back,” he said.
The return was particularly emotional for three of the POWs who were making their first trip back to Taiwan since the end of the war more than 60 years ago.
Roy, 88, was never at Kinkaseki, but admitted his emotions had got the better of him a day earlier when the men visited the site of the Kukutsu “Jungle Camp” in Sindian (新店), Taipei County, where the locals had presented them with bananas, peanuts and various other snacks.
“It was like a week’s rations in one,” he said.
Pett, 89, who spent three-and-a-half years in Kinkaseki, was also overwhelmed, but not only about his return. He was amazed at the treatment he had received from everyone, saying he felt like a “film star.”
The last of the first timers was Wood, 91, who when asked about his feelings on his return found it hard to sum them up, uttering only that it was “queer.”
Asked how he had been treated, however, he immediately bucked up, showing the kind of spirit that helped the men survive their terrible ordeal.
“It’s been fantastic, everyone has been outstandingly kind,” he said.
“So much better than last time,” he said.
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