"I wish my dad were here," the daughter of a former U.S. prisoner in a Japanese camp in China during World War II said emotionally as she went around an exhibition on Japan's wartime crimes in downtown San Francisco, California, Tuesday.
Jackie Huss Hallerberg's father Walter Huss, a U.S. Air Force fighter plane weapon operator, was captured after his aircraft was downed by Japanese troops and later held at the notorious prisoner-of-war (POW) camp set up by the Japanese forces in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang (formerly called Mukden) between 1944 and 1945.
Hallerberg recalled that her father was one of the 1,200 U.S. POWs incarcerated at the Mukden Camp who were treated harshly by the Japanese captors.
"He had an injured leg, but he received no medical care whatsoever during his nine-month-old incarceration at the camp," she said.
"Dad's experience at the camp left a bad psychological trauma... for much of the rest of his life, even after he returned to America," she said, pointing to the figure "1887" on a small wooden block, which she explained was her father's ward number at the Japanese camp.
A TRAUMA SUFFERED FOR GENERATIONS
"That trauma can be passed on through many generations. It's important to keep it in mind when we move forward," she said, pausing to control her emotions.
"Forgotten Camp: Allied POWs of Shenyang", the exhibition that opened Tuesday,features more than 200 pictures, diaries and memoirs by U.S. POWs, unfolding the untold bitter stories of more than 2,000 allied troops detained in the Mukden Camp.
Among the high-profile detainees were General Jonathan Wainwright, commander of the Allied forces in the Philippines, Major General Edward King, who led the Battle of Bataan against the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, and Major General George Moore, who commanded the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays and the Philippine Coast Artillery during the Battle of Bataan.
The Battle of Bataan was waged to secure the western shore of Manila Bay to enable the use of its harbor and open new supply lines for American troops engaged in the crucial battle for the liberation of Manila, Philippines, in early 1945.
Hallerberg said there are still many people who are affected by the WWII, especially those whose family members were POWs.
"It doesn't just end when the war ends or the person dies. It's already imprinted in some way," she added, referring to her father who died at the age of 91 a few years ago.
Mark Brussel from Washington was the first visitor to the exhibition.
"The exhibition is very impressive," Brussels said, mentioning that while he had read about the Pacific theater of World War II (WWII), he had never earlier learned so much about the POWs. "The exhibition is really good (because) you can see many aspects of history," he said.
A REMINDER OF U.S.-CHINA SOLIDARITY
Richard Losey from San Francisco, whose father and uncle were both in the U.S. Navy during the war, hailed the exhibition as "a wonderful event."
"It is very important for the next generation to know the history, and (it is) impressive to see how the U.S. and China worked together in the past. Also, it is a good reminder of human kindness," Losey said.
Simplicio Yoma, a 90-year-old Philippine-American veteran who worked for the U.S. Army in 1945, said he was happy to see the exhibition held many years after the end of the war.
He regarded it as a reminder of the history that China and the West share, of the time they stood side-by-side to fight against Japanese aggression in the Asia-Pacific region.
Jerry Chen, now 92, was a mechanic in Kunming, China's Yunnan Province, in 1943 when he was assigned to repair and maintain U.S. Air Force fighter planes. Chen said it is important to remember history.
"The American and the Chinese people made great sacrifices... Without their sacrifices, we would not have enjoyed the peace today," Chen said.
The exhibition will run for two weeks at the WWII Pacific War Memorial Hall in San Francisco.
