KUNMING, May 16 -- "I knew it was really you!" Seeing the broken middle finger of his son's left hand, veteran Yang Youfu, 96, immediately recognized him.

On Thursday, the family held a grand banquet in Bangeshan Village, Lincang County in the southwestern province of Yunnan, to celebrate the reunion, which came after 72 years of separation.

Yang, a native of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, joined the army and left his hometown for Yunnan to fight Japanese invaders in 1942, when his son Yang Yunqing was only one year old.

When the war ended, Yang stayed in Yunnan with some other soldiers and got married there. Yang had three sons and three daughters in his new family. He wrote to his family in Sichuan in 1977, but then totally lost contact with them.

Wu Siqi, a volunteer in Yunnan, offered to help Yang to look for his son. Wu posted the information on Sina Weibo, Chinese Twitter-like microblogging service, on May 3. "The elderly person misses his relatives very much and wishes to find and see his son," read the post.

Netizens showed great interest in the post and began to search for the son. Volunteers in Sichuan Province found Yang Yunqing the next day and the two had a telephone conversation.

"Dad!" the son greeted the father on the phone. It was the first time he had said "Dad" to his father. The veteran became so excited and answered "yes" several times.

At 2 a.m. Wednesday, the son with five other family members arrived at the home of his father in Bangeshan village, after more than a day of travel by train and bus.

Yang held up the son's left hand and saw the broken middle finger. He accidentally cut his son's finger while braiding bamboo baskets.

"My grandfather and uncle have too much to say to each other. Members of the two families have decided to visit each other often in the future," said Yang Wenbing, a grandson of the veteran.