Shirakawa POW Camp (Taiwan Camp No. 4)

Shirakawa POW Camp (白河捕虜収容所), officially designated Taiwan POW Camp No. 4 (臺灣俘虜収容所第四分所), was a prisoner-of-war camp established by the Imperial Japanese Army in June 1943 at Baihe (白河, Japanese: Shirakawa), in present-day Baihe District, Tainan City, Taiwan. The camp was situated on the grounds of the former Neijiao Army Exercise Ground (內角陸軍演習所), a pre-existing Japanese military training facility and barracks compound located near a wooded hillside, occupying approximately 10,000 square metres and enclosed by a bamboo fence.

The camp opened on 6 June 1943 with the transfer of over 300 prisoners from Karenko Camp (花蓮港分所, present-day Hualien), which was being closed. Additional prisoners arrived from Heito Camp (屏東分所, Pingtung) and other facilities across Taiwan. The camp population fluctuated between 300 and 500 prisoners throughout its operational period.

Shirakawa became known as the "officers' camp" because it housed a disproportionately high number of senior Allied military officers and colonial government officials. The prisoner population comprised servicemen and officials from the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Australia. The most senior captives of all — the party of Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, the British commander of Malaya Command who had surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, and civilian governors such as Sir Shenton Thomas of the Straits Settlements — had been held at Karenko; an Australian unit history records, however, that the 32 highest-ranking officers, officials and their aides were sent on to Taihoku Camp No. 5 rather than to Shirakawa, so their presence at this camp is not confirmed. Shirakawa nonetheless became the main senior officers' camp in the Taiwan camp system.

The camp's physical infrastructure consisted of one-storey wooden buildings with tile roofs and wooden floors, originally constructed as army barracks. Facilities included stables (which were reportedly used to house lower-ranking prisoners), a cookhouse, an infirmary, an isolation hut, a bathhouse, and latrines. Despite some accounts describing the hillside setting as "a lovely mountain resort" with "clean and well-ventilated" barracks, conditions were nonetheless harsh. Prisoners were subjected to a starvation diet and forced to perform agricultural labour — primarily farming rice, sweet potatoes, and other crops — which was particularly gruelling for the older officers. Guards enforced discipline through routine beatings and slappings for the slightest perceived infraction of camp regulations. One prisoner account recorded: "Beaten and disciplined for the least infraction of petty regulations. We were starved… The majority lost fifty to seventy-five pounds in weight."

Despite these conditions, prisoners found ways to maintain morale. In December 1943, inmates produced a camp magazine called "Raggle Taggle," containing essays, poems, and cartoons. Officers also engaged in reading, playing bridge, and — with an eye toward the future — drafting post-war reports on their experiences and observations of Japanese military practices.

The camp's most notable medical officer was Dr Harold Glattly, who had survived the Bataan Death March and "managed the hospital very well under the most difficult conditions." He later achieved distinction in the field of prosthetics for amputees.

In October 1944, as Allied forces drew closer to Taiwan and the threat of air raids intensified, the Japanese command decided to move the most senior officers northward. In the autumn of 1944 (accounts give October or November) most of the senior officers were shipped via Japan to prisoner-of-war camps in Manchuria, where they remained until the war's end. Following this mass transfer, Shirakawa was reorganized as a de facto hospital camp — a convalescent facility where sick and overworked prisoners from other camps in the Taiwan system could be sent for recovery, as its medical facilities were comparatively better equipped.

The camp remained in operation until August 1945. Following Japan's surrender on 15 August 1945, the remaining prisoners were liberated and gradually repatriated through Allied recovery operations.

The so-called "Peanut Incident" (花生事件) is among the documented episodes from the camp's history — prisoners cultivating peanuts and other crops for Japanese consumption were severely punished if caught eating any of the produce, despite their own starvation conditions.

After the war, the Neijiao compound reverted to military use under the Republic of China armed forces. Today the site operates as the Army Southern Region Testing and Evaluation Center (陸軍南區測考中心) within the Neijiao Military Camp (內角營區). A large metal gate blocks public access to the compound, which now contains multi-storey military buildings.

In November 2013, the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society — founded by Michael Hurst MBE — dedicated a commemorative stone monument at the lower-left section of the camp entrance gate. The memorial honours the Allied prisoners who were interned at Shirakawa. Several POW family members from the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Netherlands attended the dedication ceremony, making Shirakawa one of the former Taiwan POW camp sites where memorial markers have been erected by the Society.