Chinese mark 68th anniversary of Japan's WWII surrender

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On the 68th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender, Chinese nationwide are holding anti-war activities and memorializing those who died in the war.

In Japan, members of the cabinet, as well as dozens of lawmakers, visited the Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto shrine that commemorates Japanese who died in the service of the Empire of Japan, including convicted war criminals.

Sixty-eight years ago, former Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced in a radio address that the country would surrender to the Allies, marking the end of China's war against Japanese aggression, as well as World War II.

In east China's Jiangsu Province, an international peace assembly was held in the provincial capital of Nanjing on Thursday.

Historians, experts and people from all walks of life gathered at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, mourned the 300,000 people who died in the massacre and prayed for world peace.

"I have different feelings every time I visit, as the relationship between China and Japan changes all the time," said Tamaki Matsuoka, a retired teacher from Japan.

"However, since relations between the two sides have slumped recently, I hope more Japanese can come to the city and take part in peaceful activities," she added.

According to the results of a survey carried out by China Daily and the Japanese non-profit think tank Genron NPO earlier this month, many Chinese and Japanese have negative opinions regarding each other's countries.

Nearly 93 percent of 1,540 surveyed Chinese said they have a negative attitude toward Japan, 28 percentage points higher than last year, while 90.1 percent of 1,000 surveyed Japanese have negative feelings toward China, higher than last year's 84.3 percent.

However, Zhu Chengshan, curator of the memorial hall, said an increasing number of young Japanese have attended memorial activities in recent years.

"Tragedies can only be avoided by facing history," Zhu said.

• China's development to combat rising Japanese militarism
• None mention wartime aggression in Abe's peace pledge
• China strongly condemns Japan over shrine visit
• Irresponsible attitudes toward history jeopardize Japan's future
• Japanese politicians' shrine visits are shameless provocation
• Two Japanese ministers visit controversial Shrine
• Abe to make ritual offering at Yasukuni
• Abe rules out visit to Yasukuni shrine
• Japan risks repeating mistakes of history
• China urges Japan to reflect on history of aggression

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