A Japanese historian who has located the remains of fallen World War II soldiers in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) hopes to return them home after more than 75 years.
Working with Hengchun historian Nien Chi-cheng (念吉成), Kazuko Tachi has interviewed Takuang Borough (大光) residents to record their stories and ascertain the burial location of Kwantung Army soldiers killed in 1944 in the sinking of a Japanese convoy in the Bashi Channel.
The 38-year-old historian discovered the grave on a beach just east of where wastewater from the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant runs into the ocean, and has enlisted a maritime company to apply for excavation permits.
Photo courtesy of Nien Chi-cheng via CNA
Japan has been repatriating the remains of soldiers from the Philippines, Russia and Saipan to provide them a proper burial, but as it does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it has not sent anyone to investigate, Tachi said on Thursday.
She said that she developed a fondness for Taiwan when she arrived 10 years ago and found soldiers who still retained the bushido spirit, even after it had diminished in Japan.
She has taught Japanese in Kaohsiung ever since, and in May last year started looking for potential burial sites of World War II soldiers, she said.
Through interviews with former Japanese soldiers, Tachi uncovered many stories of the period, and in January narrowed in on Hengchun as a potential location, she said.
After seeing Nien in television news reports about the Bashi Channel incident, she went to Hengchun to speak with the fellow historian.
“Two fools came together with the goal of uncovering historical truths, both for the sake of world peace,” Tachi said.
Many tourists go to Maobitou Park (貓鼻頭公園) to pray at Chaoyin Temple (潮音寺), but most do not know that it commemorates fallen World War II soldiers, Tachi said, adding that it spurred her to investigate the wartime history of Hengchun.
Nien in 2017 published an e-book entitled Tears of the Bashi Channel (巴士海峽之淚), in which he recounts stories about the war as experienced in Hengchun based on years of interviews he conducted with survivors.
Despite the book’s title, it also includes stories about the more than 5,000 Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean and Allied soldiers who lost their lives in the Bashi Channel, Taiwan Strait and Pacific Ocean, Nien said.
After the book’s release, Japanese broadcaster NHK came to Taiwan to interview Nien, eyewitnesses and locals, filming at locations where fallen soldiers were cremated, such as Houpihu (後壁湖) and the beach east of the power plant.
In the book, Nien interviewed nonagenarian Yang Tien-fu (楊天富), who witnessed the sinking of the convoy that included the landing craft carrier Tamatsu Maru, military transport ship Kibitsu Maru and aircraft carrier Akitsu Maru.
Yang said that he clearly remembered seeing the sea covered with remains and hearing soldiers shout “long live the emperor,” while gripping their rifles, struggling to stay afloat.
Nien also interviewed brothers Chiang Hsin-tan (江新潭) and Chiang Hsin-tien (江新點), who helped incinerate the bodies that washed ashore.
“They burned bodies for days on the beach... They were all young Japanese soldiers with nametags on their uniforms and gaiters on their legs — some had long katanas,” Nien wrote in the book. “Because of the war, these soldiers’ families could not retrieve them, nor could they have proper burials, they could only be buried in the ground.”
To learn more about this period, Tachi began working at Chaoyin Temple and followed the Chiang brothers’ directions to confirm the burial site.
On the beach, she found a makeshift tombstone for the soldiers, made of coral and driftwood, which she heard was erected three years earlier by an unknown person.
She enlisted a company to apply with the Kenting National Park Headquarters and Pingtung County Government for a permit to excavate, with the Japanese government saying it would repatriate and give a proper sendoff to any remains she uncovers, she said.
On Sept. 21, the headquarters, along with the county’s cultural heritage preservation office, Tachi, Nien and others, conducted a survey of the area, but Tachi must submit an excavation plan to the office before work can begin.
Office director Lin Yang-chu (林洋助) on Thursday said that he has not yet received an application from Tachi, but after he does, the office would ensure it conforms to procedures for the excavation of human remains before approving the plan.
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