Respect History and Cherish Peace

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It was one day when I was four. Driven by the unbearable indignation at the Japanese invasion of China, my three brothers who were studying at college, decided to leave the school for joining in the anti-Japanese army. I saw my mother who had bound feet was chasing after them with difficulty and imploring them to stay in tears. However, she finally failed to change their determination. Being scared by their wrangle and mother’s continual crying in despair, I was hiding myself in the corner. It felt like the world was collapsing over a night. All these painful instants had been deeply fixed in the memory of my childhood.

 

Soon afterwards, the Japanese army stormed into and took over the city. We were in ignorance of the whereabouts of my father and my brothers and lost touch with them. The once happy family was hereby destroyed by the cruel war. Later on, in the following over 2,000 days and nights, we had been leading a life constantly on the run to escape the war.

 

I am greatly convinced that such kind of scenarios have also been engraved on the minds of millions of Chinese people. Over 36 million of Chinese people were killed brutally by the Japanese invaders during the eight years of Chinese anti-Japanese war. They were forced to move out of their homes for escaping the war, which was considered the largest migration in China. 

 

In modern history, the contradiction between China and Japan dated back to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895, which came to an end until when the Japanese announced its unconditional surrender to the world on August 15th 1945 after eight years of invasion of China. From the outbreak of Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7th 1937 until to the final victory of resistance against the Japanese invaders, the Chinese nation had been putting up bloody fighting against the enemy with enormous perseverance and solidarity, meanwhile having successfully abrogated series of unequal treaties imposed on China by Western powers previously, and become one of the top five countries in the world. 

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The year 2015 was the 70th anniversary of the world anti-Fascist war, as well as the 70th anniversary of Chinese anti-Japanese war victory. Over 6 million Jewish people were massacred brutally by the German Nazis in European War Theater during the Second World War. In the past seven decades, the Jewish people had set up in total 167 Memorials in 29 different countries around the world to commemorate these people who laid down their lives during the war. Nevertheless, over 36 million Chinese civilians and soldiers were massacred by the Japanese invaders during the resistance war, which was six times more than the Jewish casualties. And yet up to now, there was no memorials halls being built up overseas in commemoration of the Chinese anti-Japanese war. As part of the overseas Chinese, we are committed to make great efforts to defend the dignity of our country and our history. Therefore, after a year of elaborate preparation, we finally managed to establish the first overseas Chinese anti-Japanese war memorial hall in the United States in the expectation of presenting to the world of the Japanese imperialists’ brutal aggression of China and calling on people to respect history and never forget national humiliation. In addition, we decided to have the opening ceremony on V-J Day August 15th in memory of the victory of the Chinese anti-Japanese war. 

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The memorial hall is located on the site of The America National Gazette agency built up by San Francisco Chinatown in 1927. On one hand, over hundreds of overseas Chinese once made great efforts in here to fundraise for the national resistance war and carry out numerous propaganda of the Chinese resistance against the Japanese aggression in America. Hereby, this building was filled with honorable memories of these patriotic overseas Chinese heroes. In addition, San Francisco also occupied an important position in the history of Sino-US military cooperation during the Second World War. 

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Except for commemorating these heroes and victims who had laid down their lives for the country during the war, the memorial hall is also committed to present the truth of the history to the world meanwhile in the expectation of appealing to people to respect history and cherish world peace. 

 

Dedicated to all heroes who had given up their lives for the world freedom and peace during the Second World War. 

 

      Regards

      Florence Fang

      August 15, 2015