Historian: Over 4,700 perished in 1944 Bashi Channel sinkings
PINGTUNG, Taiwan — Heads bowed, experts offered their respects Monday before beginning an excavation in southern Taiwan to recover the remains of Japanese soldiers killed during World War II.
The site is linked to the sinking of a military transport vessel and other ships in the Bashi Channel after they were attacked by U.S. forces in 1944, according to the group leading the effort.
Historian Kazuko Tachi, an activist involved in the recovery campaigns, said more than 4,700 soldiers and crew members died in the sinkings, with 65 survivors.
“It is believed that many bodies from the sunken vessel reached this shore,” said Tatsuaki Inoue, representing the Japan Association for the Recovery and Repatriation of War Casualties.
The excavation in Hengchun Township, near the decommissioned No. 3 Nuclear Power Plant, is expected to continue for a week. If any remains believed to be Japanese are found and DNA samples can be extracted, they will be sent to Japan during a future mission.
Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by China as its territory, was a Japanese colony from 1895 until the end of World War II. Japan enacted a law in 2016 to accelerate the recovery of war remains, an effort that has been extended through 2030 and includes expanded DNA testing.