WW2: Unearthing the brutal camps housing allied forces | The Daily Update

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WW2: Unearthing the brutal camps housing allied forces

Surrounded by rolling hills, Jinguashi is a picturesque former mining town on Taiwan's north-eastern coast. But beneath the lush foliage and distant ocean views lies a dark and forgotten chapter in history.

Jinguashi was the location of Kinkaseki camp, one of more than a dozen prisoner of war (POW) camps, where around 4,500 Allied soldiers were held captive during World War Two.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony at the time and the soldiers - who were captured by the Japanese military between 1942 and 1945 - were forced to work in copper mines under appalling conditions. At the camps, they would be forced to heave massive stones from the valleys for the farming of sugar cane and dig man-made lakes on a paltry diet of rice and watery vegetable soup.

Many suffered from a disease called beriberi, a vitamin deficiency that made their testicles swell, but were still forced to work. Captives slogged in temperatures of more than 40C in the summer, and in the winter, their manholes were so cold, many died.

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