A memorial in honor of WWII Allied Forces will open this year in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, according to Zhang Ying, deputy director of the Shenyang Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, on June 19.

The only Allied Forces memorial in China, it was built on the site of a concentration camp, one of more than 60 that were constructed by Japanese troops in Japan and around parts of Asia to incarcerate more than 70,000 Allied Forces soldiers captured in the Philippines.

From 1942, Allied prisoners of war (POWs) were channeled to Fengtian, the old name for Shenyang. The Fengtian Prisoners Asylum was established in 1943 and it was made the central concentration camp for northeast China.

At the same time, Japanese troops set up another two satellite concentration camps in two cities in neighboring Jilin Province.

The Fengtian camp covers an area of almost 50,000 square meters. It is 150 meters wide and 320 meters long. Its three barracks held more than 640 POWs each. From the end of 1942 to the end of the war in 1945, more than 2,000 POWs from the US, Britain, Australia, Holland, Canada and New Zealand were imprisoned here. Almost a fifth of the prisoners died within its walls.

A restoration team led by the provincial cultural heritage administration was organized in 2002, and a protection and renovation project launched in 2005.

And now, more than half a century after the end of WWII, about 3,000 sq m of the camp's architecture is being restored, including guardrooms, prisoners' barracks, toilets, bathrooms, laundry rooms, the hospital and water tower.

Part of the restoration work involved collecting evidence and material including over 400 photos, several hundred minutes worth of audio and video information as well as rare documents.

Zhang, also leader of the team, headed a delegation to the US to see more than 200 surviving American POWs. The veterans gave the team mementos such as personal effects like mugs and toothbrushes used during their incarceration, and even imprints of their hands that were damaged through battle and torture during their imprisonment.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen, June 23, 2006)