China Commemorates 65th Anniversary of Victory of WW2

China today is commemorating the 65th anniversary of the surrender of Japan in World War II.

65 years ago, the then-Chinese government proclaimed a three-day celebration, one day after Japan surrendered aboard the USS Missouri, ending this country's 14-year-long anti-Fascist war.

As Su Yi tells us, today, veterans of that war still want to remind Chinese people why they are called "the Great Generation".
Wearing military uniforms adorned with shiny medals, veterans still become emotional when they recall the stories of how they put aside their books or shovels and picked up guns, even though 65 years have passed.

China's anti-invasion war started in 1931, when the Japanese blitzed and occupied the northeast.

On July 7th 1937, invaders bombarded Wanping, a town located on the southwestern outskirts of Beijing and entered the city across Lugou Bridge, sparking a full-scale war between the two countries.

Tong Bing still remembers the fierce battle along the river led by his father, General Tong Linge.

"His guards carried him back after he was shot in the leg, but he refused to retreat. He finally died when he was shot in the head."

Soon after the blitz, millions of Chinese troops were sent to the frontlines, in trying to prevent the Japanese army from running through Shanxi Province and entering the country from Shanghai.

Ninety-year-old Jiang Shu was among many young students who voluntarily joined the army.

"We had a saying at that time: no home without a victory; no marriage without a victory."

During the war, China kept about 70 percent of the Japanese troops, or about 1.5 million of them, bogged down here in China, forcing Japan to reassess its moves in the Pacific Ocean and potential plans for an invasion of far eastern part of Russia. An estimated 35 million lives were lost in that struggle.

Nowadays people travel to the memorial museum near the Lugou Bridge and a sculpture park beside it in western Beijing on Victory-Day.

Luo Cunkang is the vice director of the museum.

"We don't want people to forget that part of history, but I think people from both countries also don't want to pass on the hatred. We learn from history and we move on."

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.