As the 60th anniversary of China's triumph in the War of Resistance against Japan draws near, 80-year-old Hong Kong war veteran Billy Wong advises the younger generation never to forget the lessons of history.

Wong, who served in the British Army, recounted the brutality of the occupying Japanese forces after Hong Kong's surrender in 1941.

The Japanese began attacking the territory on the morning of December 8, 1941. Supported by the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Forces, British, Canadian and Indian soldiers tried to stop the Japanese invaders, but were greatly outnumbered.

"I was captured along with more than 120 members of the 5th artillery regiment during Christmas, and was sent to a labour camp in what is now the Wong Chuk Hang area. There we were forced to carry corpses of soldiers and civilians," Wong told China Daily at the Hong Kong World War II Veterans Association.

"I was beaten up by the Japanese soldiers as soon as I arrived at the camp. And if I hadn't complied with their orders I would have been gored with their bayonets." After several days of back-breaking labour, Wong managed to flee the camp with the help of his friend, who disguised him as a member of the cleaning staff.

Wong said Japanese cruelty and inhuman torture methods were on full display after the fall of Hong Kong, with their soldiers randomly slaughtering the local residents.

"After martial law was declared in Hong Kong, there were many restricted zones in the territory, and normal people who ventured into those areas were shot at sight. Even children were killed." But the barbarity of the Japanese was not limited to that. For the beast in Japanese saw them raping many women too.

That's why the younger generation should always remember the Japanese atrocities and pass them onto the next generation.

Wong's fellow war veteran Mar Noi-kwong, who served in the British Royal Navy during the war, said the Hong Kong World War II Veteran Association would invite the British prisoners of war (POW), saved by Chinese fishermen off Cho San Islands, to the territory.

"They are the three surviving Hong Kong POWs, who were supposed to be shipped off to Japan for hard labour after the territory fell in 1941. They were on board a vessel called 'Lisbon Maru' when it was hit by torpedoes fired from a US submarine," Mar said. "The POWs were abandoned to die in the sea at Cho San Islands near Ningbo, but fishermen rescued some of them. Though most of them were recaptured by Japanese forces later, three managed to flee to Chongqing."

Mar said the war veteran organization would arrange for the surviving POWs to meet the local press and other groups during their visit. "We hope the visit will remind the younger generation what history has taught us," he said.

(China Daily HK Edition June 2, 2005)