[Excerpts]

...



There is a frightening bit of background information to this part of the story which became obvious when these documents below were found in the hands of the Japanese.

Document No. 2697
(Certified as Exhibit “J” in Doc. No. 2687)
TO: Chief of Staff, Taiwan Army
FROM: Chief Prisoner of War Camps Tokyo
POW Camps Radio #9 Top Military Secret.
20 August 1945

Personnel who mistreated prisoners of war and internees or who are held in extremely bad sentiment by them are permitted to take care of it by immediately transferring or by fleeing without trace.

Moreover, documents which would be unfavorable for us in the hands of the enemy are to be treated in the same way as secret documents and destroyed when finished with.

Addressees:
Korean Army, Taiwan Army, Kwantung (Manchuria) Army, North China Area Army, Hong Kong. (YOSHIOKA, Nadaji) [penciled in]
Reference [penciled in] Chiefs of Staff-Korea, Taiwan, Mukden, Borneo, North China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaya, Java.
Each POW Camp Commanding Officer.

The “kill” document was issued in August 1944, about a year before the end of the war, but probably when the Japanese were realising that they were not going to win this war. The second “flee” document was issued two or three days after our camp had been liberated.

Document No. 2701
(Certified as Exhibit “O” in Doc. No. 2687)
From the Journal of the Taiwan POW Camp H.Q. in Taihoku,
entry 1 August 1944


[click]

1.
(entries about money, promotions of Formosans at Branch camps, including promotion of Yo Yu-toku to 1st Cl Keibiin - 5 entries)

2.
The following answer about the extreme measures for POW’s was sent to the Chief of Staff of the 11th Unit (Formosa POW Security No. 10).

“Under the present situation if there were a mere explosion or fire a shelter for the time being could be had in nearby buildings such as the school, a warehouse, or the like. However, at such time as the situation became urgent and it be extremely important, the POW’s will be concentrated and confined in their present location and under heavy guard the preparation for the final disposition will be made.

The time and method of the disposition are as follows:

1.
The Time.
Although the basic aim is to act under superior orders, Individual disposition may be made in the following circumstances:

a. When an uprising of large numbers cannot be suppressed without the use of firearms.

b. . When escapees from the camp may turn into a hostile Fighting force.

2.
The Methods.
Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, or however it is done, with mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, decapitation, or what, dispose of them as the situation dictates.

a.

In any case it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces.

3.
To: The Commanding General
The Commanding General of Military Police

Reported matters conferred on with the 11th Unit, the Kiirun Fortified Area H.Q., and each prefecture concerning the extreme security in Taiwan POW Camps.”

[excerpt]

We children and some of the older people followed the Americans around wherever they went, and on one of these “hero sessions”, while trailing along after one of the Americans, I was jumping over a bench and caught my arm between the back rails of the bench. “Ouch!” However, such was my excitement and awe at being in the orbit of this newly discovered star, that I ignored it for the rest of the day. In bed that night I began to feel the pain, and late that evening I was taken to the hospital, where they ascertained that I had a greenstick fracture of the radius and my arm was placed in a plaster cast.

A few days later, six of us children whose parents lived in the west of China, were flown out in a bomber which was stacked full of parachutes which had been used in the supply drop. As there were no seats of any kind on board, we spent the trip lolling about on parachutes in comfort, I with my arm in plaster – a wounded warrior.

We were free at last.