Interesting to read about this, I remember once I visited Jiufen and all the usual tourist spots when someone mentioned there were old gold mines up in the hills. Upon further research when I got home I found out allied POW’s were forced to work there in conditions that were basically slave labour.
Anyone know if there’s any museums that I can visit that shed light on this history?
Not quite forgotten: there’s a memorial at Kinkaseki (aka Jinguashi), with an annual ceremony held there (except of course when coronavirus restrictions make this impossible).
Lots of news stories are available about this history as the last survivors are passing away.
Guy
There is a nice trail from Jioufen to Kinkasake. The entrance is near the bus stop called Geding 隔頂。 It was not easy to find last time I tried, so I took another entrance 5 min download the road.
The trail is called Shanjan Road Trail 山尖路步道 I used the info from this link.
There’s a wikipedia page in Mandarin on the location and the type of forced manual labor for each camp. Aside for those imprisoned at Kinkasake, who were subjected to work in the mines, the rest of the camps seem less deadly.
It’s not a secret. I think the history is mentioned in a museum there. I forgot the name. It was up the hills.
Btw I know a friend who’s grandpa or great grandpa was a gold miner. Their supervisors would pat them down so that they wouldn’t be able to sneak any valuables out. Still, her grandpa managed to snuck a small piece of gold out by hiding it inside his teeth cavity. Thought it was pretty cool.
I went by the one in Xindian on one of my bike rides a few months ago. It’s gated up, but there’s a plaque outside commemorating the POWs.
There is an excellent book on this subject. Well worth a read. ‘Never Forgotten. The Story of the Japanese Prisoner of War Camps in Taiwan During World War II’ by Michael D. Hurst.
In Japanese, it’s pronounced and romanized as Kinkaseki, not Kinkasaki.
http://www.powtaiwan.org/archives_detail.php?THE-KINKASEKI-COPPER-MINE-13
Guy
Everything you could possibly want to know about the camps is in the book.
Go to Michael’s website to learn about the history and join future events.
Never Forgotten :: The Story of the Taiwan POW Camps (powtaiwan.org)
You know why I like taiwan? They acually dedicate government project money to give their corrupt friends to hire their freinds to CNC cool rocks to REMEMBER human rights issues.
Q: What do other Han culture based nations do?
A: Exactly…
I love Taiwan, as fucked up and dysfunctional as it may seem, it is improving! And that is more than I can say for most other nations. Han based or otherwise.
Go Taiwan!
We need all the hope can muster.
Guy
I took this picture. The map gives you a general idea, but that the actual trails are way more ‘organic’, given that they interconnect with the houses of the villagers.
My great uncle, who died around 20yrs ago, was a POW in the site where the Taiwan Military HQ is in DaJr. A few years ago we went to the incredible memorial park in Jingiuahi and found his name on the wall there. A very moving experience, especially with the sculpture of two POWs there. Then a bus load of tourists turned up started taking selfies with the sculpture… Sadly this part of history is almost completely unknown by most locals. I recommend going to the Jingiuahi memorial park, we went in July and just being there taking photos was draining in the summer heat, I can not imagine having to work in the mines like they did.
The memorial referred to here is the Kinkaseki one (aka Jinguashih) discussed above. It’s really moving that your great uncle made it back, under these circumstances, as a survivor.
CORRECTION: The great-uncle mentioned survived but did not revisit the site.
Guy
A few other posts about this in forumosa’s archive; first one is a longer discussion, the second one shorter, and the next two are annual posts about remembrance events:
Another excellent book, which I strongly recommend reading if you are interested in this subject, written by someone who actually lived through the experience, is ‘One Day at a Time - Kinkaseki’, by Arthur Titherington.
I believe the survivor rate was around 90%, whereas camps run by other nationalities was much higher.
Sadly great uncle passed away before the memorials were put together, he asked me to go there and take photos once but this was pre-internet/digital camera days and we couldn’t find any information as to the locations. So much easier now. Until the day he died he refused to have anything Japanese in the house at all, Taiwan was not a good experience for him.
That’s interesting, thanks for sharing
Here’s a video about the camp in Pingtung complete with an interview with a former Taiwanese guard.
Hakka speaking in Pingdong. This place is probably near Liuk-tôi?
