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BACKGROUND:

During World War II, my father served on the USS Brister, DE 327.  The Brister, commissioned in 1943, spent most of the War in the Atlantic.  As the War in Europe drew to a close, the Brister was transferred to duty in the Pacific.















In 1945, my father, Frank H. Wells (US Navy Y1C) kept a special diary and photo album, which only came to light after he passed away in 1988.  His diary and photo album document the evacuation of POWs in Formosa (Taiwan) in September 1945.

















On September 4, 1945, the Brister was ordered to Formosa to join other British and American ships in evacuating POWs.  On September 6th, the Brister went into Taihoku Harbor and brought out 185 prisoners, mostly British.  Almost all of those men had been prisoners for at least three and a half years, and my father noted that many of them were in bad shape.  Of these 185 prisoners, 135 were transferred to aircraft carriers for medical treatment.  On Sept. 7th, the Brister was underway to Manila, carrying 50 of the POWs on board. My father noted how happy the men were and were already "looking much better."  While underway to Manila, my father spoke with, and took pictures of, some of the former POWs on board, and carefully recorded their names.

In 2007, I contacted the Taiwan P.O.W. Camps Memorial Society, and sent many of my father's pictures to the Society.  Because of the names my father recorded, nine additional names of previously unknown  prisoners were added to the Society's roster of POWs.  The following is a link to an article in the Society's Newsletter discussing the pictures I contributed:

http://www.powtaiwan.org/newsletters/2007%20Fall%20Winter/page_3.htm

It is my wish that this historic moment recorded by my father be made available to those families and historians who are a part of documenting the history, service and bravery of the men in these pictures.  It is also to recognize and honor my father for the part he and his shipmates played in this little highlighted, but important part of the history of World War II in the Pacific.


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