The Weihsien Compound
The Weixian Internment Camp (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade–Giles: Wei2hsien4 Chi2chung1ying2) was a Japanese operated Civilian Assembly Center in the former Wei County (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade–Giles: Wei2hsien4), located in the present-day city of Weifang, Shandong, China. The compound was a Japanese-run internment camp created during World War II to keep civilians of Allied countries living in Northern China. The camp's population included British, Canadian, American, Australian and other citizens who were forced to stay in the camp for nearly two and a half years until American forces liberated them on August 17, 1945. Information on Weixian has been learned through papers, diaries, official reports and letters written by internees, family members, and other people affected.
During World War II, the Allies were at war with Japan. The Japanese invaded most of the area from the Aleutian Islands in the far North to the Southern regions of New Guinea, and from Western Burma to the Mid Pacific Ocean. Japan historically invaded China on July 7, 1937, which began the second Sino-Japanese War. Overall, the Japanese held approximately 125,000 civilian prisoners or internees. Of those 125,000 civilian internees, 10% were in China and Hong Kong throughout the war. Many allied civilians, mostly Americans and British, lived in some of the Japanese-occupied areas and were forced to relocate themselves into internment camps. The Japanese called these Internment camps Civilian Assembly Centers. In these camps, death rates were high because of the lack of good sanitation, starvation, and poor treatment. There were the occasional executions and some internees suffered cruelty and torture.
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