ARTICLES & STORIES

FURTHER JAPANESE ATROCITIES ON TAIWAN DURING WW II COME TO LIGHT. . .

     In a letter received in the autumn of 2000, we learned of further atrocities committed against prisoners of war on Taiwan by the Japanese in the closing days of the war.

     At that time we received a letter from Mr. Charles D. "Buddy" Parker of Florida, USA asking for assistance in finding more information on his brother who had been executed by the Japanese in Taihoku in June 1945. This was the first time we had heard anything about other POWs being executed. To our knowledge there were only the two POWs...

The RAKUYO AND KACHIDOKI MARUS

     In the spring and early summer of 1944 a large group of so-called “fit” POWs were returned to Singapore from Thailand upon completion of the Death Railway.

     On September 4th 1944 a convoy of several Japanese transport ships set sail from Singapore. There were two ships carrying POWs - the Rakuyo Maru with 1,317 POWs and the Kachidoki Maru with 900 POWs aboard. On the 12th of September the Rakuyo Maru was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Sealion II at around 5:00am and the Kachidoki Maru received hits from the submarine...