According to data from the National Archives and Records Administration, Japan had detained more than 2,019 Allied troops from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and France at the Mukden Internment Camp by January 1945.
Big-name detainees included British General Arthur Percival and U.S. General Jonathan Wainwright. The latter, a partner of General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines during the war, was caught by the Japanese military in 1942.
Allied troops captured in the early days of the Pacific War, experienced life-threatening long marches and brutal beatings by Japanese wardens, Jing said.
In addition, the prisoners suffered from extreme hunger and malnutrition, according to Li. "I saw some even pick up peanuts and cigarette butts we accidentally dropped on the ground," he said.
His accounts are reinforced by a painting by prisoner Malcolm Fortier. It shows one of his emaciated fellows digging for wild vegetables and another plucking seeds of sunflowers, with a caption reading, "We are searching for anything edible."
Li was not alone in lending a hand to the foreign prisoners.
Chinese worker Gao Dechun helped three American prisoners escape by providing a map of the camp. Gao was later captured and jailed for 10 years.
Another worker, Ge Qingyu, along with American prisoner Roland Nenneth Towery, stole axletrees at the factory and exchanged them for food.
In 2005, the US government awarded the three Chinese the Certificate of Appreciation for their humanitarian aid to the POWs at the camp. Li was the only honoree alive to accept the award in person.
Neil Gagliano managed to send a thank-you letter and his photo to his benefactor in 2003. "I'm No. 266......It has been such a long time, but it feels like it just happened yesterday," he wrote.
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