Various activities were held on Thursday to commemorate the
"July 7 incident" of 1937, also known as the "Lugouqiao Incident,"
which sparked Japan's all-out invasion of China.
An opening ceremony was staged in the morning at the Memorial
Hall of the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese War, located at
Lugouqiao (also known as Marco Polo Bridge) in Beijing, for an
exhibition on the war and the people of the world's victory over
fascism.
With the theme of "keeping history in mind and loving peace
while ushering in the future," the show was divided into eight
parts featuring over 800 cultural relics, 600 photos and 40 charts.
Of the historical documents, 141 were available to the public for
the first time.
The memorial hall had been closed for more than three months in
order to prepare for the exhibition, and a team of artists were
invited to create oil paintings and sculptures.
"After I viewed the exhibition, I feel that we Chinese should
never forget the nation's humiliation during World War II," wrote
Li Siyang, a student from Beijing Jiaomen Primary School in the
visitors' book.
Until September 3, the exhibition will accommodate visitors in
groups mainly free of charge.
The same day, local residents and visitors burnt incense and
prayed for war victims at the site of a mass grave at Jiangdongmen
in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu
Province, where 28,730 corpses were buried at the beginning of
1938.
The grave was from the Nanjing Massacre of December 1937 when
Japanese troops occupied the then capital, killing over 300,000
civilians, burning a third of the houses and raping over 20,000
women.
A website, www.neverforget.com.cn, was also launched yesterday
with the slogan "Never forget and pray for peace" and providing
records, photos and video and audio materials. Surfers can present
virtual floral tributes for the war victims via the site.
The bell of Nankai
University in Tianjin, north China, was chimed on Thursday
morning for two sets of seven strokes to mark the date of July 7.
The 3,000-kg bell is 1.937 meters high, a reference to the year
1937, when Japanese troops bombarded the university.
A museum of the cross-border war against the Japanese also
opened in Yunnan Province and Myanmar, where Chinese
troops fought alongside British and American forces. It is believed
to be China's first private anti-Japanese war museum.
(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2005)
