The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, with the co-operation of the Ministry of National Defense, yesterday dedicated a new monument to commemorate senior Allied officers who were imprisoned by the Japanese in a prisoner of war (POW) camp in eastern Taiwan during World War II.
Ministry of National Defense officials, along with British and US officials based in Taiwan, attended the dedication ceremony in front of a military police base in Hualien, the former site of the Karenko POW camp.
The 401 POWs held captive in the camp between 1942 and 1943 included British, US, Australian and Dutch officers, said Michael Hurst, founder and director of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, the principal force behind erecting the memorial.
Photo: Lin Hsin-han, Taipei Times
Taiwan was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945.
“For many years, I’ve had my eye on this site, hoping that one day we can build a POW memorial here,” Hurst said at the ceremony.
After the establishment of a POW memorial near the location of the Taihoku POW camp in Taipei’s Dazhi District in November last year, Hurst said earlier this year he proposed to the defense ministry that a new memorial be erected at the Hualien camp.
Having the memorial at the site will ensure that the stories of the POWs who suffered and died there “have not and will not be forgotten,” he added.
Family members of Britain’s Major General Merton Beckwith-Smith, who died at the Karenko camp on Nov. 11, 1942, traveled to Taiwan to attend the ceremony.
“It is wonderful to be in the place where he died,” said Joanna Reed, one of his granddaughters.
“[It was] a sad day in many ways,” Reed said with tears in her eyes, but she added that it was nice to see the environment in which her grandfather ended his days.
“It was very moving and it was a great tribute to our grandfather and the other prisoners of war who were interned here,” Anne Beckwith-Smith said.
Along with the monument, a sign was also erected telling the story of the camp.
More than 4,360 POWs were held in 14 camps around Taiwan, according to the POW Camps Memorial Society.
The event ended with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial.
Established in 1999, the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society is dedicated to locating former POW camps.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
RSS