![\"87d018a8925016bd06bd2eb8fed651a9u5\"](\"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/87d018a8925016bd06bd2eb8fed651a9u5.jpg\" "\\"87d018a8925016bd06bd2eb8fed651a9u5\\"")
\nChief Cabinet Secretary Lin Fangzheng (Vision China)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Terry Smith, son of a British prisoner of war in the Far East, has been outraged and disappointed by the Japanese government’s \u201cAvoidance\u201d of World War II history. His father was captured by the Japanese during World War II and tortured for three years.<\/p>\n
According to a report in the South China Morning Post on the 4th, Chief Cabinet Secretary Lin Fang is refusing to attend a memorial ceremony at the Commonwealth War Cemetery on September 2, the event commemorates the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender and the release of thousands of Allied prisoners of war. John Terry, a research fellow at the Department of British University of Essex history, said his father, private Edwin Smith, was sent to work and tortured in a coal mine run by Lin’s family during World War II. Edwin of Northumbria saw many prisoners die from exhaustion, an experience that left him scarred for life.<\/p>\n
\nChief Cabinet Secretary Lin Fangzheng (Vision China)<\/p>\n
Reported that Edwin of Northumbria served in the Royal Artillery of an anti-aircraft force, he was captured in March 1942 after the Japanese occupation of Java island. Edwin of Northumbria contracted malaria, beriberi, dysentery and dengue fever during his captivity, suffered from malnutrition and had his jaw broken by Japanese guards with the butt of a gun. After his release in 1945, Edwin of Northumbria suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and nightmares for the rest of his life. Edwin of Northumbria’s experience was a microcosm of the tens of thousands of allied far eastern prisoners of war, many of whom did not survive to victory, \u201cStarving, overworked, ill, and eventually reduced to skin and bones.\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel sad, but I’m not surprised,\u201d John Terry said of Lam’s rejection, saying it was rather impolite and I didn’t think he or any other member of the Japanese government had anything to lose by attending the memorial. He said members of the Japanese government had\u201cTaken an unnecessary evasive stance\u201d towards the families of British Far Eastern prisoners of war and should not be so sensitive to\u201cCriticism\u201d. \u201cThese people don’t understand,\u201d John Terry stressed. The families of zero far eastern prisoners of war needed an apology and information about their loved ones, not financial compensation. In addition to Lam, former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso was also invited to the event, but he did not respond. The report said Taro Aso’s family had forced prisoners of war to work in southern Japan during World War II. Li Xundian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Terry Smith, son of a British prisoner of war in the Far East, has been outraged and disappointed by the Japanese government’s \u201cAvoidance\u201d of World War II history.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,260],"tags":[3270,3272,3271,3269],"views":48,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6656"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6659,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6656\/revisions\/6659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}