Flag raising honours POW veterans

A special flag raising took place this morning to honour Hong Kong veterans who were prisoners of war during World War II.

The Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association told us they are celebrating VJ Day, which pays tribute to the end of the war in the Pacific, and remembers the Canadian veterans who fought in the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941 and were liberated on August 15th in 1945.

The regiments were the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles.

Kathie Carlson, a member of the group and daughter to a POW was asked if any of the survivors talked about their time in captivity during the war.

“A lady that her father had passed recently, and she came to this convention. We used to meet every two years, and she said she went from table to table, and she said, I found this box. It had a little sort of a note that her dad had kept a few little things that were significant to him. She said, I didn’t even know that that he was there. He never said. And that is typically every father that we’ve ever heard about never told any of us. And my father was no exception.”

Carlson says the last remaining Hong Kong POW veteran from that liberation lives in Nova Scotia and is 106 years old.

The group is also celebrating their 30th anniversary this year.