Sirens wailed in more than 100 Chinese cities on Monday as the nation stopped to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the start of the Japanese invasion.

Launched by a deputy secretary of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, a siren blared in Changchun, capital of the northeastern province.

Starting at 9:18 a.m., the siren lasted for 23 minutes.

More sirens were heard in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province. Wailing at two ten-minute intervals, they lasted for more than half an hour.

Since 2004, the city has sounded sirens on Sept. 18 in commemoration of the date in 1931 when Japanese forces attacked the barracks of Chinese troops in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province.

"Nobody in Shenyang will forget this day," said Jing Xiaoguang, head of the city's 9.18 museum. "A person may forget the pain when his or her wounds heal, but a nation never does."

The city of Shenyang, together with 13 other cities in Liaoning, will sound sirens for the first time, at 9:18 p.m. Monday.

Vehicles on nine roads and 18 streets in Shenyang will also sound horns in support.

Shenyang began the siren sounding ceremony on Sept. 18 in 1995 following a suggestion put forward by an elderly member of the public.

"We need strident sirens like this to assail people's eardrums and reach their innermost heart. Only in this way can our humiliation be transformed into the energy of national revitalization," said Wang Jinsi, member of the China Anti-Japanese War History Institute.

Over the past few years, Wang and his comrades have recommended proposals to the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that sirens be sounded in all cities in China on Sept.18.

Wang also suggested that a national humiliation day or national calamity day be designated, so that activities taking place in different places could be focused and coordinated.

Since 2004, sirens have been heard in over a hundred Chinese cities and not only in the northeastern part of the country.

Wang said he is happy to see that an increasing number of Chinese people feel "they must do something on this day."

More than 20,000 people visited the 9.18 museum in Shenyang on Monday morning.

A visitor surnamed Yu said he took his mother to the museum from Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province, about 2000 kilometers from Shenyang.

"We came to Shenyang just to visit the museum and deliberately chose the date of Sept.18 to remember the day of our national humiliation," Yu said.

The museum, which is always open free of charge on days commemorating China's Anti-Japanese War, has received more than seven million visitors over the past seven years, including 80,000 from Japan.

Almost all the 150 Anti-Japanese War museums in China saw a big increase in attendance on Monday.

Source: Xinhua