POW's daughters visit NE China internment camp

Margaret Gibson could not control her fury at the sight of the man who used to torture her father.

"This man, I know. He was very bad. I heard that many times from dad. Prisoners were treated with great cruelty by him," Gibson said, pointing at the picture of a Japanese prison guard as she visited the site of her father's World War II captivity in northeast China.

With fitting timing as China and the world mark 70 years since the end of WWII, Australian sisters Gibson and Elizabeth Collins had come to what remains of the Fengtian Internment Camp in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province.

Their father, Desmond Brennan, was a military doctor before he was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore in 1942. He was among the first group of captives to arrive at Fengtian. He was prisoner No. 25.

Occupying more than 50,000 sq meters, the camp was one of 18 the Japanese established for prisoners of war. Over 2,000 POWs from the United States, Britain, Australia and Holland were held here between Nov. 11, 1942 to Aug. 15, 1945.

At least 260 died of cold, illness, hunger or beatings in the camp during the three years, said Liu Changjiang, curator of a museum established on the site.

Seventy years ago, prisoners were given only two meals a day, mainly soup and bread. They lived in freezing, crowded conditions and were provided with no medical supplies.

Gibson and her sister Collins pored over the pictures of the camp and donated a camp diary their father kept. "This place is strangely familiar, because it features in so many of his photos and diaries," said Collins.

The camp was liberated at the end of the war. Brennan spent months recovering from his ordeal. He continued his medical practice after the war before dying in 2003.

"Although my father suffered from Japanese cruelty, he also got help from the Chinese people. We will never forget that. Thank you for keeping the memory of the POWs alive," wrote Gibson in the museum visitors book. Endi