The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society on Saturday held an event to honor the thousands of prisoners of war who endured hardship, and in many cases lost their lives, at camps in Taiwan and elsewhere in East Asia during World War II.
Participants observed a moment of silence after remarks by guests that recalled what they endured.
The 2001 film To End All Wars, which depicts the story of prisoners at a Japanese camp during World War II, was screened.
The event was held on Far East Prisoners of War Day, a day of tribute to those held by the Japanese during World War II, including at 16 sites in Taiwan.
According to the society’s research, 4,373 prisoners, including British, Australian and Dutch nationals, were held in Taiwan at 14 camps and two temporary evacuation camps from August 1942 to September 1945.
More than 400 of them died in Taiwan, it said.
The idea for the day of remembrance was conceived by a group of former prisoners and their families and friends, as well as historians in the UK.
Society chairman Michael Hurst, who has studied the history of Taiwan’s prisoner of war camps for 23 years, said that the prisoners, including civilian internees such as nurses, engineers and other members of the armed forces, endured horrific mental and physical torture at the camps.
For those who made it home, many continued to suffer because no one cared for them due to the general desire among many to let go of the pain brought by the war, he said.
Hurst thanked the government for supporting his efforts to raise awareness of the history of prisoners of war and said he was glad that knowledge of wartime events was growing among Taiwanese.
“It’s been very rewarding and I think the word is spreading,” said Hurst, who initiated the effort to construct monuments at former prisoner of war camp sites in Taiwan.
He plans to establish a museum in Taiwan to educate people about former prisoners’ stories, which he described as “unique, but not as well-known as the Bridge on the River Kwai,” referencing the real-life events of the film about British prisoners of war at a Japanese camp in what was then Burma.
“One of the things I want to do is to open a POW museum either in Taipei or New Taipei City. That’s going to be a big project. We are going to need help from the central government and local governments,” he said.
Hurst is also working on a book that tells the stories of the camps, which is to be released this year.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
RSS