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... it happened 50 years ago ...

Click on the pictures ...

The Reverend Dr Norman Cliff, DPhil, BA, BCom, FSCA.

A CHURCH MINISTER ACCOUNTS FOR HALF A CENTURY
This year my mind goes back fifty years to a 1,600 strong Japanese civilian camp ...



Guests of His Imperial Majesty

LAST weekend, at a hotel in Weybridge, 360 people gathered - some from as far as Canada , New Zealand , Australia , the United States and South Africa - for a reunion which united many of them for the first time in 43 years.
The ties which brought them together go back to pre-war China, where they formed part of a far-flung European community of doctors, missionaries, teachers, administrators and traders, whose centre was Shanghai, the "Paris of the East" and, by 1939, the world's fifth largest city.
This colourful era came to an end in the early hours of Monday December 8, 1941, when the Japanese army ...



The front gate of Weifang camp, through which hundreds of prisoners rushed to welcome their liberators

Journey To Freedom.
On the eve of the anniversary of VJ Day, Dr Norman Cliff recalls his rescue from Weifang prison camp in north China

On a hot day in August 1945, in Weihsien ...



Return visit in 1995.

"We have come here today to celebrate an event which took place here half a century ago and which was destined to change the lives of us all, Westerners from across the sea and Chinese people living in this area. We have come thousands of miles from four continents to ...



Mary Previte holds part of a yellow silk parachute that a camp survivor had embroidered with the signatures of the rescuers.

She tracked down WWII liberators to say thanks
Mary Previte trembled as she dialed the number. With luck, the man at the other end would be the one who engineered her rescue from ...



From: Dr. David J. Michell,
Toronto, Ontario M5M 1W8
Canada
50th Anniversary of V-J Day
Thank You, America
On August 17, 1945, now 50 years ago, 7 brave GI's parachuted into Weihsien Concentration Camp in North East China and freed ...