He wants greater recognition for his fellow prisonersNational commemorations are needed to honour the forgotten suffering of 50,000 British troops captured in the Far East during the Second World War, campaigners have said. A petition for an annual memorial day is gaining traction, as surviving veterans who were taken prisoner and their relatives ask to be recognised. The British PoWs, seized across Asia between 1941 and 1945, faced torture, starvation, beatings, brutal labour and tropical diseases. Many were sent to camps to work on railways and roads, in copper mines and steel factories and on other construction projects. A quarter of those taken prisoner by Japan, an enemy that did not adhere to the Geneva conventions, were killed or died in captivity.

Source: The Times June 28, 2019 23:03 UTC