Veteran arrivals to mark end of WW II
WAR veterans begin arriving this weekend for the territory's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Hong Kong and the end of World War II.
The milestone is being remembered on Monday by 30 war veterans who fought the Japanese and whose comrades in arms are buried in Sai Wan war cemetery.
Remembrance services are being held earlier than the main series of celebrations at the end of the month to allow veterans to attend commemorations elsewhere.
The veterans, all from Britain's Southend branch of the Far East Prisoners of War Association, will be joined by members of the three services stationed in Hong Kong.
'We are pleased to see these former servicemen making the long trip out to commemorate their former friends and colleagues,' said garrison spokesman Captain Mark Bailey.
More than 1,000 of the 6,300 remembered at cemeteries in Hong Kong were killed in service elsewhere in the region.
'It will be a truly historic and emotional occasion,' said veteran Jack Edwards of the Royal British Legion Hong Kong, himself a Japanese prisoner in Taiwan during the war after his capture in Singapore.
'They will come for services at Sai Wan and Stanley before heading off for the main commemorations later at various places where they spent the war, such as Borneo, Java and Sumatra.' Mr Edwards, a long-time champion of British passport rights for wives and war widows of former servicemen, leaves for Singapore today to attend the unveiling of a memorial to the Royal Navy and merchant seamen who died in the war.
The mariners' memorial, to be unveiled next to Changi Prison, bears the words 'None of us should forget' which closed Mr Edwards book Banzai You Bastards about his wartime experiences.
More than 450 veterans from around the world will be in Hong Kong for liberation events from August 22 to September 2.
