The US Department of State awarded three Chinese citizens for
the humanitarian help they offered to US POWs during World War
II.
The certificates of appreciation were awarded to Li Lishui, Gao
Dechun and Ge Qingyu for assistance rendered to the US POWs held at
the Camp Hoten in Shenyang during the Pacific War, announced David
A. Kornbluth, consul-general of the US Consulate General in
Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning
Province, on Friday afternoon.
The humanity and courage displayed by the three Chinese in
risking their safety to help American prisoners will be remembered
by the US government and people, says the certificates of
appreciation.
Japanese troops locked up more than 2,000 POWs of the US, the
UK, Australia and the Netherlands in the Camp Hoten from November
11, 1942 to August 15, 1945. Prisoners were tortured by diseases,
iciness, hunger and beating and 244 of them died.
Many Chinese people rendered self-giving help to the
prisoners.
Li, 81, is still in good health while the other two had passed
away.
Li said food was in short supply at that time and because he was
an apprentice in the camp, he was not allowed to talk with
prisoners.
He recalled that one time, after buying vegetables back from the
market, he secretly threw several cucumbers to the No. 266
prisoner.
That prisoner later mailed to Li his photos and a letter of
thanks, saying he would never forget those cucumbers.
Gao helped three American prisoners to escape by providing a
map. He was captured by Japanese troops later and put into prison
for 10 years.
Ge, then a conservator at a factory run by Japanese, was the
benefactor and friend of Roland Nenneth Towery, a later Pulitzer
Prize winner. They worked together to steal axletrees and exchanged
for food.
Towery has always borne in mind Ge's help and funded his
granddaughter to continue studies at a university.
(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2005)