Part two of the documentary about allied senior prisoners of war held in Liaoyuan, produced by Jilin Radio and Television Station. [Video provided to gojilin.gov.cn]

From November 1942 to August 1945, the death rate at the Japanese-run POW camp in Liaoyuan reached 16 percent – the result of harsh labor, general mistreatment, and inhumane living conditions. But numbers alone cannot capture the depth of suffering that took place there.

In December 1944, sixteen Allied generals, captured in Southeast Asia, were transferred to the camp in Xi'an county (today's Liaoyuan). Forced into labor, they planted elm saplings outside the barracks. Eighty years later, those saplings have grown into towering trees – living witnesses that peace is not merely the absence of war, but a commitment that must be nurtured.

When liberation came, ordinary villagers lined the streets to send the generals off. They pressed food and fruit into their hands, refusing payment. When the convoy sank into the mud, locals pushed the vehicles and carried luggage up steep slopes. Acts of kindness in the face of brutality became a form of quiet defiance.

Yet, when the generals returned home, many found no one waiting, some families overjoyed, others broken by loss. The weight of war was not just on the battlefield, but in every fractured life.

Today, the Liaoyuan elms whisper a message: remember the pain, but let it give rise not to hatred, but to compassion, because every life deserves gentleness.