A headstone with an inscription in English believed to date to World War II that recently went missing from a graveyard in Taipei has been retrieved and temporarily listed as a historical relic, the Taipei City Government said on Tuesday.
The headstone, discovered during a burial site relocation project in Xinyi District (信義), had been reported to police as missing by Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chia-pei (許家蓓).
Police tracked down the headstone and returned it to the site, where it was on Monday analyzed by experts from the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs.
The department’s Cultural Heritage Division said that the headstone,
Taipei, April 12 (CNA) A headstone with an English inscription thought to date back to the Second World War that recently went missing from a gravesite in Taipei has been retrieved and temporarily listed as a historical relic, the Taipei City government said Tuesday.
A nearly 80-year-old headstone with an inscription in English discovered in Taipei, which experts said could indicate the final resting place of a prisoner of war (POW) imprisoned by Japan in Taiwan during World War II, has been stolen before it could be properly analyzed.
The Taipei City Government on Jan. 28 ordered the relocation of 30 graves by April 30 as part of a road expansion plan in the hills near Lane 137, Fude Street in Xinyi District (信義).
Visitors to the area then discovered a headstone with English lettering, pictures of which were posted on the Ancient Tomb Detectives Facebook