'Nobody else knew': Allied prisoners of war held in Taiwan

Michael Hurst (R), founder and director of the Taiwan Prisoners of War (POW) Camps Memorial Society, leads a tour and introduces a map of POW camps around Taiwan at Taiwan POW Memorial and Peace Park, in New Taipei City on July 31, 2025. - AFP

JINGUASHI, Taiwan: In a small urban park in Taiwan, more than 4,000 names are etched into a granite wall - most of them British and American servicemen held by the Japanese during World War II.

The sombre memorial sits on the site of Kinkaseki, a brutal prisoner of war camp near Taipei and one of more than a dozen run by Japan on the island it ruled from 1895 until its defeat in 1945.