A nearly 80-year-old headstone with an inscription in English discovered in Taipei, which experts said could indicate the final resting place of a prisoner of war (POW) imprisoned by Japan in Taiwan during World War II, has been stolen before it could be properly analyzed.
The Taipei City Government on Jan. 28 ordered the relocation of 30 graves by April 30 as part of a road expansion plan in the hills near Lane 137, Fude Street in Xinyi District (信義).
Visitors to the area then discovered a headstone with English lettering, pictures of which were posted on the Ancient Tomb Detectives Facebook page on March 31.
Photo: CNA
Photographs taken by visitors and military historian Chang Wei-bin (張維斌) show that the name on the headstone could be either “Clack, Eric Arthur,” or “Clack, Erec Arthur,” while the date of death is Aug. 25, 1945.
The grave could have been for a British soldier who was captured and sent to Japan-occupied Taiwan as a prisoner of war during World War II, Chang said.
There are two other headstones with what appear to be English inscriptions, but they are too badly weathered to make out the names or date of death, Chang added.
As cement was a valuable material during World War II, it is unlikely it would have been used to make headstones for POWs, unless they were Allied servicemen who died at the end of the war, cultural heritage conservationist Hsiao Wen-chieh (蕭文杰) said.
The city’s Department of Cultural Affairs had planned to send experts from its Cultural Heritage Division to determine the historical background and cultural value of the headstone yesterday.
However, the Ancient Tomb Detectives reported on Saturday that it had been stolen.
Lai Yu-wen (賴郁雯), head of the Cultural Heritage Division, on Sunday said that the cultural value of headstones can only be determined on location, but information and data provided by the general public would still be submitted to experts for analysis.
If it is determined that the headstone belonged to a World War II POW, it would be the first such finding in the city, she said.
The theft has been reported to the police and the city’s Mortuary Services Office, which was put in charge of relocating the graves and has been instructed to suspend all relocation work, Lai added.
Citing Article 15 of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法), Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chia-pei (許家蓓) of the Democratic Progressive Party said that the city’s cultural affairs department should have conducted a cultural heritage evaluation of the site much earlier.
Taipei’s New Construction Office, Mortuary Services Office and Department of Cultural Affairs would be held accountable if the theft is found to have been caused by a failure to follow proper protocol or poor communication between the departments, she said.
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