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WWII war veterans gather in London to remember VJ Day

Elderly British veterans of World War II in East Asia, many of them former prisoners of war, gathered at the Imperial War Museum or the 60th anniversary of VJ Day.

Prince Philip, husband of
Queen Elizabeth II, who served with the Royal Navy in the Pacific and witnessed the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, mingled with the 100-odd veterans as they recalled the years of conflict.

Philip, patron of the Burma Star Association, which represents veterans from the war in what is today Myanmar, also toured an exhibition in the south London museum dedicated to children in wartime.

Also on hand were musicians from the British army's Gurkha brigade, recruited in Nepal, who treated the veterans to a stunning display with their distinctive curved kukri knives.

"I think a lot of veterans felt their part in the Second World War was forgotten and their privations forgotten," said Terry Charman, a historian at the Imperial War Museum.

"Something like a quarter of our prisoners died under the Japanese compared to four percent that died in German which gives an idea of the terrible conditions they were under," he said.

"A lot of PoWs feel the Japanese did not regret what they did, they just regretted not winning the war.

Read entire article at AFP