Yan, 95, recalls the terror of July 7
Print Edition
ALMOST eight decades since Yan Guiru was gripped by terror as shells rained on her Beijing neighborhood in the opening salvos of war between China and Japan, she recalls the conflict with horror.
It was the night of July 7, 1937, when a barrage of unrelenting gun and cannon-fire erupted.
Then a newly married 17-year-old, Yan lived about 100 meters from the Marco Polo Bridge, an 11-span arch in Beijing’s western suburbs mentioned in the Venetian traveler’s stories.
“The guns started suddenly. Somebody shouted ‘The Japanese are coming!’ and then we rushed into the house, shut the door and hid under the beds,” said Yan, now 95.
“I was so scared. Everyone was. I don’t know how long the shelling lasted,” she added.
The skirmish served as pretext for the invading Japanese forces to seize Beijing, triggering eight years of full-scale war, which saw the deaths of more than 20 million Chinese people.
China commemorated the 78th anniversary of the start of its eight-year resistance against Japanese invasion yesterday, underlining the country’s essential role in World War II.
Activities were held nationwide to mark the “July 7 Incident” of 1937, when Japanese attacked Marco Polo Bridge, a crucial access point to Beijing.
Japan invaded northeast China in September 1931, but historians generally agree that the July 7 Incident marked Japan’s full-scale invasion and the start of China’s war of resistance.
Commemorations near the bridge highlighted the anniversary.
In front of giant red banners, Liu Yunshan — a member of the Politburo Standing Committee — addressed hundreds of military personnel, veterans and schoolchildren.
When the gunfire stopped, Yan’s petrified family — she lived with her husband, his parents and sisters — emerged from under their beds but were too scared to go out for days.
Eventually Japanese soldiers broke down the door, and Yan and her sisters-in-law hid behind their husbands, fearing they would be dragged away and raped. “Thankfully, they did not take us,” Yan said. “But they stole our pig, a chicken and everything they could find to eat.”
Yesterday’s ceremonies fit into months of commemorations for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
Yan still occupies the same one-story courtyard house where she lived in 1937 and neighbors greet her respectfully.
“I don’t think Japan has admitted its crimes even today,” Yan said. “And I don’t think Japan will ever be a good friend of China.”
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