By Huangfu Haitao
On December 13, 1937, Japanese troops invaded Nanjing and began a massive, brutal massacre of Chinese people that lasted more than 40 days, killing 300,000 innocent lives and leaving the darkest page in the history of human civilization. That heart-rending period was a tragedy and disaster for the city and a shame on human civilization.
This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. Today, people around the country are commemorating in various forms the massacre victims, all those Chinese who fell down under Japanese aggressors’ gunpoint and bayonets, and the revolutionary martyrs and heroes who devoted their lives to winning the war of resistance against Japanese aggression.
If history sheds no light on our way toward the future, we will be trapped in darkness without a way out. We commemorate history not to continue the hatred, but to draw lessons from it to guide us onward. Back then, in face of the brutal and atrocious Japanese aggressors, the Chinese people pulled together and fought relentlessly to win a great victory against them, making tremendous contributions to winning the world anti-Fascist war. Today, as a responsible major country, China is duty-bound to shoulder the responsibility for preserving world peace. It would never allow the comeback of militarism or a repeat of the historical tragedy.
Recently a total of 453 pieces (sets) of vital historical materials and objects were added to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders that further proved the atrocities of Japanese aggressors. Yet in recent years, some Japanese politicians have frequently visited the Yasukuni Shrine where Class A war criminals in WWII were enshrined, downplayed their crime in the Nanjing Massacre, denied the forced recruitment of comfort women, and publicly challenged the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Proclamation and the Tokyo Trial, to name a few. If Japan doesn’t reflect on its past crimes or take lessons from history but is instead bent on acting against the trend of the times, it will surely go down the wrong path again.
Peace is a blessing for the people and defending peace is the people’s army’s responsibility. History has taught us that without a strong country and a powerful army, peace and happiness for the people would be impossible. A strong country must build a strong army because only a strong army can ensure national security. With greater capability and more reliable means, the entire military has the resolve and ability to defend the nation’s sovereignty, security and development interests.
