Apprentice, now 91, remembers forming bond with prisoner 266 held by Japanese

Li Lishui, 91, has three possessions he values almost as much as he life itself: A letter written in English, an old photo of a foreign soldier and a certificate the United States awarded him for helping Allied prisoners held by the Japanese during World War II.

In the Dadong district of Shenyang, Liaoning province, the story of how Li met and befriended the Allied POWs more than 70 years ago is told at a museum that commemorates the Camp for Allied Forces Prisoners of War in Mukden. Shenyang was known as Mukden in English at the time.

The National Museum of the United States Army says the Japanese held 2,018 POWs from six countries - Australia, Britain, France, the US, Canada and Holland - in the camp between November 1942 and August 1945. Their average age was 26.

The camp, in which the most senior Allied officers were held, is one of the best-preserved former camps. Among the soldiers held there, 523 were ranked major or higher, and 76 were brigadier generals or higher. Some became famous, including General Jonathan Wainwright, commander of the Allied forces in the Philippines, Major General George Moore, former commander of the Philippine military harbor defenses, and Brigadier Duncan Maxwell, the commander of the Australian Army's 27th Brigade during the invasion of Malaya.

The POWs worked in a machinery factory supplying MKK, which at the time was an important weapons and parts maker for Japanese aircraft based in Shenyang.

"About 1,000 Chinese workers also worked at MKK," says Li, who was an apprentice there.

"They often brought food and cigarettes for the prisoners, even though their living standards were no higher. The POWs stole goods and asked the Chinese to exchange them for necessities from outside.

"The POWs were very tall, but very thin, with big, deep-set eyes."

Except for those who were seriously ill, all the POWs had to work. They started at 7 am, he says. In winter, it was still dark at that time. Because they left at 6 pm, after sunset, they got used to working without seeing the sun.

However, the close connection was broken in spring of 1943 after three escaped POWs were recaptured and executed. The Japanese believed a Chinese worker had helped the POWs so the prisoners and the Chinese workers were divided into two working groups and were barred from even using the same toilets or looking at each other, Li says.

The Japanese ordered the POWs to work in the northern section of the factory and the Chinese to work in the southern section. They were not allowed to talk or use hand gestures, and anyone who disobeyed was badly beaten.

Many times, Li says, he saw POWs pick up food that Chinese workers had dropped on the ground on purpose. One particular POW he often saw bore the number 266.

There was a small kitchen that provided food for the Japanese. One day, Li found a small trolley stacked with vegetables, and he and one of the other apprentices managed to steal some tomatoes and cucumbers.

"Just as we were eating them furtively, I saw POW 266 looking at me. Without thinking, I grabbed two cucumbers and threw them to him. He was very smart. He smiled at me and hid the cucumbers under the machine at which he was working."

A few days after the camp was liberated in 1945, Li met the man at the gates of MKK. The man gave Li a handful of sticky black blocks and said something Li did not understand.

"I thought he had given me sweets, but it tasted bitter, and many years later I found out it was chocolate. I didn't tell that story to anyone for about 60 years, but in 2002 a historian contacted me and handed over a letter and a photo. They were from prisoner 266, whom I then discovered was called Neil Galliano."

In 2005 the US government awarded Li a certificate for his kindness to the prisoners.

Over the past 20 years, some former POWs have written memoirs and gone back to see the former camp.

"But it's a pity I've never seen 266 again," Li says.

liuce@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/15/2015 page7)