CHINA: Former American Prisoners of War retell their experiences as they return to World War Two detention camp

Record ID: 346228

  • Title: CHINA: Former American Prisoners of War retell their experiences as they return to World War Two detention camp
  • Date: 26th May 2007
  • Summary: (L!3) UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, INDONESIA (FILE) (REUTERS) BLACK AND WHITE FOOTAGE OF JAPANESE PRISON CAMPS VARIOUS OF EMACIATED PRISONERS OF WAR VARIOUS OF LIBERATED PRISONERS OF WAR BEING TREATED BY DOCTORS
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: War / Fighting,History
  • Reuters ID: LVA2N67WYO3TSZF9T0NS6R6JPIWB
  • Story Text: Nine US war veterans made an emotional return to a prison camp in China where they were held under brutal conditions by the Japanese military during World War II.
    Mukden Allied Prisoners of War camp held more than 2,000 World War Two allied forces prisoners between November 1942 and August 1945. On Wednesday (May 23), nine of the surviving Prisoners of War (POWs) returned.
    The American veterans' return to their former prison celebrates China's decision to preserve the remaining parts of the site as a war museum.
    The veterans have contributed their own personal artefacts to the museum for public display. Items such as photographs, uniforms and military dog tags will be registered and added to the museum's exhibit.
    Before being brought to China, these nine veterans survived the so-called Japanese Hell Ships in which prisoners were crammed into the stifling hulls of unmarked transport ships which were then unwittingly bombed by the allied airforce.
    The troops had surrendered in the Philippines and the old soldiers still remember the Bataan Death March, now regarded as a war crime, in which tens of thousands of emaciated and malaria-infected soldiers were forced to march for days under the scorching Philippine sun.
    Ralph Griffith who spent three years under the name number 552, can still recite his roll call and many other phrases in remarkably fluent Japanese. Despite the visit awaking old memories, he maintains that he was glad to visit again and is happy that the site will be preserved.
    "Well, you know, its nice to come back and see where you have been but the sad part about it is you don't like to remember," said Ralph Griffith.
    Of the three prisoner blocks, only block three remains with its low makeshift toilet block alongside.
    The prisoners' quarters consisted of wooden-slatted shelves, prisoners slept eight to a shelf. Clifford Caldwell remembers playing illicit card games through the night and stashing his winnings under the bunk.
    Prisoners were fed 2 bowls of rice a day with very little meat or vegetables. The meagre food rations provided for the working prisoners had to be spread thin to feed all the mouths.
    Wayne Miller remembers how the desperate prisoners resorted to any means looking for a source of protein.
    "We couldn't eat the food so some of the fellas took these ropes, made a loop out of them. The other end went to a door, so they took the food and put it in the loop and the dogs came along and they pulled on the other end, caught the dogs by the, under the collar, in the neck, most of the time and they pulled them to the door and beat them to death and then that meat was eaten," said Wayne Miller.
    Miller explained how the prisoners secretly roasted the dog meat in the stoves of their living quarters.
    They were given a small ration of coal every evening to feed the stoves, but the nine returned veterans all carried vivid memories of the bitter cold in the winter.
    Very few prisoners managed to escape from Mukden camp and those who did were often caught and punished in front of the whole camp, the former prisoners said.
    "They were caught and they were brought back to our camp and dug their graves then they made all of us in the camp get out and stand there and watch them being shot and then they were buried right there," said Wayne Miller.
    Once Shenyang was liberated the situation changed entirely. The Japanese guards became the Mukden prisoners whilst the newly released allied soldiers suddenly found themselves armed with guns and ordered to guard the compound in which they had been incarcerated for three years.
    Footage of prisoners released from Japanese camps displays emaciated and confused prisoners, yet 50 years later, these nine veterans profess themselves pleased to return to the camp they once never thought that they would leave.
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