On Wednesday, nearly 70 survivors of Weishien Concentration Camp
and their families gathered at its site in Weifang City of east
China's Shandong Province to mark the 60th anniversary of the
camp's liberation.
"I prayed to God that someday before I die I could come back to
China, and here I am," 70-year-old David Birch said. "My heart is
full."
The retired cinema doorman never imagined he could return to the
former camp where he had lived as a child, and he never thought he
would meet his old friends from the camp.
The site is now in the compound of a local middle school, with a
hospital nearby. Most of the internees' dormitories have been torn
down, and only a handful of Japanese officials' buildings
remain.
It used to be a missionary compound named "The Courtyard of the
Happy Way" before the Japanese army turned it into a camp where
2,008 men, women, and children were held between 1942 and 1945.
Most of the adult internees have since died, including R.
Jaegher, former adviser of then KMT President Chiang Kai-shek, Eric
Linddell, the 400-meter Champion in the 1924 Olympics, and Arthur
Hummel, who was the US ambassador to China in 1980s.
All the returning survivors were children at the time, and many
brought their families to share in their experience.
"I remember on August 17, 1945, the American flights came and
rescued us," said Birch. "That was the most exciting day in my
life. We were all dancing and singing, running out of the
camp."
"I remember that day; we were all crazy," said 77-year-old
Australian writer Joyce Bradbury. She was brought to tears when she
saw the former camp building and the hundreds of middle school
students lining up along the road, applauding for their return.
Joyce said she was nine when she was brought to the camp. They
were crammed in small houses, given scarce food, and forced to do
labor when they reached 14.
"One time a horse died and the Japanese guards let it decompose
until worms grew on it and then fed us with its meat," she
said.
But most of the internees said the guards treated them
carefully, in contrast with how they treated the Chinese. No one
knew exactly how many people died in the camp but the number was
small, they said.
"I really cannot forgive them (the Japanese army)," said
Bradbury.?
Stephen Metcalf, a 78-year-old former internee who lived in
Japan for decades after being released, said the Japanese
government should face up to history and tell its younger
generation the truth about the war.
He said the Japanese have made a mistake by trying to sweep the
war under the carpet.
In a speech on behalf of the internees, Mary Previte, a member
of New Jersey's General Assembly, said, "We who were interned are
here to speak the story of our lives: War and hate and violence
have never opened the way to peace."
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2005)