Former PoW hits out at his old comrades over Japanese protest

Capt William Harris claims the vast majority of former Japanese prisoners stayed away from the public protests earlier this week.

And he has revealed that the national president of the Far East PoW Association wrote to the Queen earlier this year clearly indicating the official line was not to demonstrate.

In the BEN early this week, Capt Harris said the protests, in which old soldiers turned their back on the Royal Party's carriage carrying the Emperor, were an "insult to our Queen".

He has blamed a breakaway group, the Japanese Survivors' Association, for the demonstrations and expressed his "anger" that the demonstrations had taken place.

Capt Harris, 83, of Fleet Street, Horwich, also expressed his "disappointment" that the Far East PoW Association, which comprises the majority of survivors, had not made its anti-demonstration policy public.

He said: "I am personally disappointed that this correspondence to the Queen, made on April 22, was not made available to local Associations like our own. To receive it after the visit is somewhat disappointing."

He added that the breakaway Japanese Survivors' Association had been formed by members seeking compensation, which he did not.

He said: "I do not wish in any way to harm present relations between the UK and Japan.

"But on the question of forgiving and forgetting, it is just not on."

In addition, Capt Harris claimed bestowing the Order of the Garter upon Emperor Akihito was a "political" decision made by the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary.

He said: "The Order of the Garter is a gift of the Queen but I have not the slightest doubt that there is a political aspect to this which is very much in the minds of Tony Blair and Robin Cook.

"This, I think most of us would agree, is deplorable."

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