HISTORY OF WWII INTERNMENT CAMP BONDS WESTERNERS, CHINESE FRIENDS

Gratitude still strong for Weifang villagers' support for foreigners held by Japanese invaders

In a 140-year-old cross-shaped building in Weifang, Shandong province, two walls display nearly 50 golden handprints, each inscribed with an English name, and some also having a Chinese name.

Most of the handprints are those of people from Europe and North America. Some of them spent more than two years in what was the largest civilian internment camp established by Japanese invasion forces in the Far East during the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and World War II, an experience that profoundly changed their lives.

Although they now live in different parts of the world, they have left their names and handprints in China forever.