Scores of New Zealanders entitled to $30,000 in Government compensation for trauma they endured in Japanese prisoner of war camps have yet to collect the money.
The Government has paid $30,000 each to 89 former prisoners of war (POWs) or their spouses, but there are an estimated 150 former prisoners still
alive.
Veteran Affairs director Jessie Gunn said today only one application had been received in the last two months.
She said up to 60 former POWs or their spouses may have decided they did not want to reopen the horrific experiences of the Japanese POW camps by applying for the $30,000 grant.
Ms Gunn said the Government offer had no deadline as Prime Minister Helen Clark said the former prisoners, many of them children when they were put into prison camps, should not be denied the grant because they had not met an earlier deadline of April, this year.
The Government made the offer in recognition of the trauma and hardship suffered by New Zealanders as Japanese prisoners during World War 2.
More than 400 New Zealanders were detained in Japanese camps and one in four died in captivity.
Ms Gunn said because of a 1951 peace treaty signed between Japan and New Zealand, it was unlikely the Japanese government would formally apologise or offer compensation.
Although the money was a big help to many former prisoners who were struggling financially in their twilight years, it was also a much-needed acknowledgement of what they endured.
"It has taken a long time to come but at last ...their suffering has been recognised."
She said many would have a sense of "closure" now their wartime suffering had been acknowledged.
The former prisoners of war she had spoken to generally had a sense of forgiveness to their former captors.
- NZPA
