Related News
Bells toll a warning to cherish peace
Print Edition
BELLS rang and a siren sounded at the September 18 Incident History Museum in Shenyang, capital of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, yesterday. The museum was marking the outbreak of the war of resistance against Japanese invaders 86 years ago.
Behind the museum, what is now an expressway linking Harbin with Dalian used to be part of the South Manchuria Railway, scene of the Liutiaohu Incident.
On September 18, 1931, Japan’s Kwantung Army unit stationed in northeast China destroyed a section of the railway near Liutiaohu and accused the Chinese military of causing the explosion.
Using this as a pretext, the Japanese then bombarded Shenyang and began its invasion of northeast China.
By January 1932, all three provinces in northeast China were occupied by the Japanese.
Cui Junguo, now retired after serving at the museum for more than two decades, knows almost every detail of the incident.
“It’s painful when I hear the siren pierce the sky,” the 60-year-old said. “It’s like you suddenly traveled back in time.”
The bell was rung 14 times, representing the 14 years that the Chinese people fought the Japanese invaders. The period has been referred to as the “darkest days of modern China.”
Over 80 years have passed, but memory of that part of history remains. “No one in Shenyang gets married on September 18,” said Cui.
People around China hold events every year to mark major incidents during the Japanese invasion, including Liutiaohu and the Nanjing Massacre.
“The way you treat history defines your future path,” said Wang Jianxue, vice chairman of the Society for Study of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Historical Materials.
Last month, “Twenty Two,” a documentary featuring the stories of 22 comfort women, was an unexpected hit, becoming the first Chinese documentary to take more than 100 million yuan (US$15.2 million) at the box office.
Another documentary, “The Truth of Harbin Unit 731,” was released by Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
It revealed the crimes committed by Unit 731, a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
Ceramics and balloons were used as biological weapons on Chinese civilians and prisoners of war by the Japanese unit, according to another Chinese museum.
A number of ceramic bombs and a 3-meter-tall white balloon are on display at the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.
Unit 731 produced about 2,000 ceramic bombs from 1937 to 1942, a staff member at the museum said.
Metal bombs required a lot of gunpowder, and extremely high temperatures could destroy bacteria, so the Japanese began using ceramic bombs, which held fleas carrying anthrax and bubonic plague, he said.
A plane could carry 10 ceramic bombs containing around 5,000 fleas.
To help diseases proliferate, the Japanese also used hot-air balloons to distribute plague-carrier fleas.
“The evidence is new proof of the atrocities committed by the Japanese army,” said Jin Chengmin, the museum’s curator.
“It serves as a warning to remember history and cherish peace.”
Civilians and prisoners of war from China, the Soviet Union, the Korean Peninsula and Mongolia all perished in Unit 731.
Over 70 years ago, Okawa Fukumatsu was awarded a saber for his “outstanding services in human vivisection” at the unit.
Two years ago, from his wheelchair, the former Japanese soldier handed the saber to the museum to be put on display.
The saber had belonged to Shiro Ishii, Unit 731’s commander.
Jin had flown to Japan in 2008 to obtain evidence from former soldiers and met Fukumatsu, who talked about his time at Unit 731 — revealing secrets Ishii had ordered him to “take to the grave.”
Fukumatsu said he was ordered to perform human experiments. When he refused, his meals were stopped.
“I gradually became numb. I operated on two people a day, and that increased to five people a day as my assignment went on,” he said.
Su Zhiliang, a professor at Shanghai Normal University, said: “The history seems far away, but it is always with us. Only by remembering it can we ensure the horrors are never repeated.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
