December 10 is the annual International Human Rights Day set by the United Nations to raise awareness of human rights issues.

For students in British Columbia of Canada, they had a special lesson to mark the day.

Lifestyles goes with them to find out.

STANDUP: AL CAMPBELL, CNC CORRESPONDENT.
"Students in Vancouver got a dark lesson on the horrors of history on Friday when an International Human Rights Day student symposium was held at a local high school under the theme of Human Rights: Asia Pacific 1931 to 1945. The two-day symposium which attracted about 800 students from 18 high schools around the province of British Columbia comes ahead of Saturday' s International Human Rights Day, a United Nations initiative that was started to make sure people never forget about the human rights violations that were committed during the Second World War and to ensure that they never happen again."

Students of grade 11 and 12 from schools all round the province attended the symposium and listened to talks given by guest speakers.

Marius Van Dijk Van Nooten from the Netherlands talked to the students of his experiences of living in a war camp in Indonesia when he was a boy. He was interned for three-and-a-half years during wartime.

SOUNDBITE: MARIUS VAN DIJK VAN NOOTEN, CAMP SURVIVOR.
"It really surprised me too that so many of our younger people are interested in what happened to us. In my own family we don' t even talk about each other or what happened to us. I don' t even know my younger brother' s story, and my mother' s story, etcetera. But I was very impressed too that the people here were had such an interest of what happened to us during the Second World War."

For the students hearing firsthand stories from survivors of the atrocities committed by Japan in Asia during World War Two, the experience proved an eye-opener in learning about some important history that is traditionally not included in school history books in Western countries. 

SOUNDBITE: ELEXI MILLS, STUDENT.
"I' d actually never heard about the genocide in the World War II in Asia. So it was a totally new experience for me. We' ve all heard about the holocaust, we' ve been learning it since at least elementary school, and I was just blown away by learning about this atrocity and I was really confused as to why I had never about it before."

SOUNDBITE: MARINA FAVARO, STUDENT.
"The Asian holocaust was a really atrocious event. In learning about it, and in doing plenary presentations, we really gained a lot of understanding and insight into how terrible it really was."

SOUNDBITE: EZRA MANSON, GRADE 12 STUDENT.
"The world' s sort of always focused on Europe. But it' s unfortunate because, like it said, the Rape of Nanking has been called a forgotten holocaust. I mean the atrocities there are just as worst. It' s very important that we' re learning about it today."   

STANDUP: AL CAMPBELL, CNC CORRESPONDENT.
"This symposium here in Vancouver was organized by B.C. Alpha - the British Columbia Association for the Learning and Preservation of the History of Asia in World War Two. B.C. Alpha was started in 1997 by Hong Kong immigrant Thekla Lit, who has been vigilant in promoting awareness about atrocities that Japanese soldiers committed during World War Two. She says the work will continue until the Japanese government issues a formal apology for what they did."

One of the focuses of B.C.Alpha is to educate teachers about the atrocities the Japanese troops committed in China during the Second World War.

Each summer it takes Canadian teachers to China to learn about the history.

Over the years, more than 150 teachers have participated in the Peace and Reconciliation tour.

Jacqueline Siller, head of the Social Studies Department at Vancouver' s Prince of Wales High School, says her trip 3 years ago made her a better educator.

SOUNDBITE: JACQUELINE SILLER, SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER.
"When I went 2008 with Alpha, we learned about the comfort women, about the laborers and it was a very, very intense trip and it really made an impact on my life.

After the trip, Siller has been adding materials about Asian history, especially during the war time, into her lessons.

SOUNDBITE: JACQUELINE SILLER, SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER.
"It' s quite interesting. The students that had some education in China have learned about this, but the students who went to school here in Vancouver have heard very little about this. So both groups really connect with this and they find it very fascinating so it' s a great program to focus on."

According to Lit, such first-hand exposure to the Japanese war atrocities in Asia is increasingly finding its way into the curriculum at Canadian schools.

SOUNDBITE: THEKLA LIT, B.C. ALPHA FOUNDER.
"So the teachers and educators are also very supportive to this education because they do believe, in the past, our education is too Eurocentric. So bringing this chapter of history into the curriculum is really beneficial to our students here, especially in B.C. which is really a gateway to the Asia Pacific."