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Veteran Chinese Soldiers Condemn Distortion of History
The younger generation in Japan will be misled towards militarism as an immediate result of the decision made by the Japanese government to authorize the use of a revised history textbook, said veteran Chinese soldiers who fought against Japanese aggression more than half a century ago.
"I can not understand what on earth the Japanese government wants its young people to become in the future, with this textbook distorting history," said Xu Shenglong, adding, "I will never forget for the rest of my life that it was the Japanese invaders who killed my father and brothers."
Xiao Yaowu, 79, was born in a small village in Yuanping County in north China's Shanxi Province. The village, fronting the water and with hills behind it, was peaceful while the calm lake surface showed reflections of the people working nearby.
The peace, however, was broken in the spring of 1940 when brutal Japanese invaders burst into the village. They raped women, plundered grains and livestock, and finally burnt down the whole village.
Homeless Xiao and a dozen other teenagers joined the anti-Japanese army one dark night.
Wang Guodong, with anti-Japanese aggression medals pinned on his coat, said that nobody can alter the history of Japanese aggression. "We veteran soldiers are living evidence."
Wang was forced to learn Japanese at the age of 10. He and other children were told that their homeland would become Yamato land, and all of the Chinese children should try to become Japanese.
After being rescued by anti-Japanese guerrillas, Wang joined the national campaign against Japanese aggression.
Wang Haichen noted that the war has brought not only disaster to Chinese people but also to Japanese people. "If Japan denies history and continues to educate the younger generation with a militarism textbook, there is no doubt that the Japanese people will suffer again from the bane of war," he said.
The veteran soldiers gathered together in Harbin, capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Thursday to criticize the decision on the history textbook made by the Japanese government.
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