Chinese Personages Appeal to Japan to Face up to History

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, August 16, 2003

Chinese Personages Appeal to Japan to Face up to History

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Chinese personages from various walks of life on Friday appealed for Japan to correctly treating that part of history of aggression during World War II, keep historical lessons in mind, and work hard for the maintenance of world peace.

Addressing the a ceremonial event to mark the 58th anniversary of the China's victory over Japanese aggression, Wei Yongwang, deputy curator of the Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japan, which is located at Lugoujiao area on southwestern outskirts of Beijing, where Japan's all-round war of aggression against China started in 1937, said that the Chinese people have never treated Japanese people as the object of hatred,and "our only hope is merely that Japan will face up to the war past and correctly treat that part of history."

Nevertheless, he said, there are still a handful of Japanese who have not truly plead guilty deep in their mind, and still attempt to defend the war of aggression against China.

"That is why the problem of toxic chemical weapons left by Japanese troops during World War II are still around and remains unresolved," he noted.

Liu Zongren, 81, once a courageous railway guerrilla veteran involved in the battles against Japan, said he had personally witnessed the brutal atrocities committed by Japanese intruding troops in August of 1938. The stark evidence is there and there are no reasons whatsoever for Japan to deny.

Relevant statistics available show that on the part of China, the war cost China 35 million casualties and incurred a total lossof 600 billion US dollars worth of property.

Xie Youzhang, a 72-year-old resident from the northwestern ancient capital of Xi'an who came specially to visit the museum along with his granddaughter, said the Chinese people should neverforget the humiliating history, which should be made known to the younger generations. "We hope that Japan should take history as mirror in which to look at and treat the future properly," he added.

Meanwhile, the deputy museum curator enumerated problems including those relating to chemical weapons, war time comfort women, Japanese history textbooks and the visit of the Yasukuni Shrine by some leading Japanese figures, which have hurt the feelings of the people of China and other Asian countries. He expressed the hope that Japan could learn from the past and face up to the future.

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