PoW camp exhibition strikes a chord with UK residents

Bill Evans, an ex-serviceman of British Army, views a PoW camp exhibition held at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool on Nov 8. [Photo by Ma Chi/chinadaily.com.cn]

"History should not be forgotten, we should let more young people know the history of war," said Bill Evans, an ex-British Army soldier, when visiting a PoW-themed exhibition in Liverpool on Sunday.

Evans is among the local visitors who were moved by an exhibition titled "Forgotten Camp - Exhibition on Shenyang World War II Allied Prisoners Camp" which was unveiled at St. George's Hall in Liverpool on Nov 6.

The photographic exhibition sheds lights on the sufferings of Western prisoners of war detained by the Japanese in a camp in Northeast China during the WWII.

Evans told China Daily that "many young people today do not know what happened in WWII, we need to tell them the truth." The former Royal Green Jackets soldier had just paraded in front the Liverpool Cenotaph in an annual ceremony that honours service men and women who have died in wars. He said he would take his children to the exhibition.

Roy Kennaugh and his son Graham braved the early winter chill to visit the exhibition. The older man said: "The exhibition shows us a terrible period of history. China is a more powerful country now, but I hope there will be no more conflict between China and its neighbors."

He also said he had read a book about the Nanjing Massacre, and he hoped there would be an exhibition in Britain to let more British people know it.

Shenyang World War II Allied Prisoners Camp, once known as Mukden camp, is one of the best preserved of the 200 or so Japanese camps built to house Allied prisoners throughout occupied Asia.

It housed over 2,000 inmates from the US, UK, Australia, France and the Netherlands, and barely 1,600 survived when it was liberated in August 1945.

The exhibition will run through Nov 15 at Saint George's Hall.