War memories remembered in documentary

SHENYANG, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Ping has worked against time to find and interview veterans who fought in a war over 70 years ago, recording their oral accounts about the details of the war.

Zhang is one of the directors of a documentary produced by a local television station in the city of Dandong, northeast China's Liaoning Province, which borders the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Over the past four years, she and her colleagues have traveled to more than 60 counties and districts from 12 provincial areas and filmed the oral history of over 500 veteran interviewees.

The documentary, "Remembrance," has released 212 episodes, and the book and video disc of the same name was published earlier this month.

"We have to be quick before it is too late," she said, adding that sometimes, almost as soon as they found and managed to contact one, they were told the veteran had just died.

The Korean War broke out in June 1950, eight months after the People's Republic of China was founded. The flames of war soon reached the border river of Yalu and wreaked havoc in Dandong, then known as Andong, with buildings bombed and civilians killed.

At the request of the DPRK, Chinese ground forces under the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPVs) entered the Korean Peninsula on Oct. 19, 1950, and fought the first battle on Oct. 25.

A total of 2.9 million CPVs from across the country joined the war that lasted almost three years, with more than 360,000 soldiers killed or injured.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

Zhang still remembers the first veteran she interviewed was Jiang Wen, a veteran medic who lost his right arm in the war.

While carrying a stretcher in a battle, a fellow soldier accidentally stepped on a landmine, leading to Jiang's injury and amputation.

Zhang recalled that when the camera crew arrived at Jiang's home in Yixian County in the city of Jinzhou, the veteran, aged over 100, was thrilled like a child.

"He told us stories in the war one after another, and sang five army songs in a row," she said.

The camera crew traveled over 2,000 km to Sichuan Province to meet Tu Boyi, who was severely burned in a war fire.

"The enemy plane flew very low. The napalm bomb fell, and all of a sudden, trees, grass and even stones on the hillside burned. I was instantly surrounded by flames," Tu was quoted as saying.

The war left Tu with irreparable wounds -- extensive burns, his fingers unable to bend and his face disfigured.

When Tu was asked whether he would fight in the war if he could choose again, he curled up his broken right hand with difficulty and said loudly, "As long as the country still needs me, I will go without hesitation."

Zhang Lei, another director of the documentary, said among the veterans they interviewed, a quarter have now passed away.

"The fact that the heroes have successively left us has shown the urgency and value of our work. History should be remembered," she said.