KUNMING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) — Shrouded in solemn silence lies the historic website of the Battle of Songshan in Longling County, southwest China’s border province of Yunnan. It was the primary battlefield of the western Yunnan marketing campaign in the course of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Now, dealing with the positioning, a concrete military of 402 life-sized statues has been set as much as commemorate the Chinese Expeditionary Force (CEF). Deployed to battle alongside the Allies in areas of China, Myanmar and India, the CEF’s essential mission was to thwart Japan’s try to chop off the Yunnan-Myanmar highway, a key provide path to China throughout World War II (WWII).
Nearly each statue is surrounded by tributes of flowers, fruits, pastries and liquor. A younger lady from central China’s Hunan Province paid her respects by fastidiously laying a lollipop earlier than a boy soldier’s statue. “I want him to taste our sweet life today,” she mentioned.
Although over 80 years have handed, the reminiscence of the conflict endures in western Yunnan. By preserving and restoring wartime websites and memorials, native governments and neighborhood teams have remodeled a profound historic trauma into solemn locations of remembrance, guaranteeing that the teachings of historical past are by no means forgotten and galvanizing a deeper appreciation for peace.
OPEN-AIR WAR MUSEUM
With a long time of joint efforts by the native authorities and residents, the relics on the Battle of Songshan website have been largely preserved of their unique state, as they had been on the finish of the conflict. Songshan Mountain’s rolling highlands nonetheless bear the scars of battle: an enormous community of bunkers and trenches, tunnels excavated by the CEF to destroy Japanese strongholds, and large blast craters. Together, they provide guests a tangible hyperlink to the brutal preventing that raged right here between Chinese and Japanese troops over eight a long time in the past.
In May 1942, the Japanese military invaded the western Yunnan and entrenched themselves on Songshan Mountain alongside the western financial institution of the Nujiang River.
Two years later, the CEF launched a big counteroffensive in western Yunnan, starting with a fierce assault on Songshan Mountain on June 4, 1944. Over the course of greater than three months of fight, they engaged with Japanese troops in 10 main battles and round 100 skirmishes, finally reaching victory by utterly annihilating the over 1,200-strong Japanese garrison at the price of greater than 7,700 deaths. In the aftermath of the extraordinary conflict, the Songshan battlefield was strewn with corpses and totally devastated.
According to Zhou Shanshan, a information on the Battle of Songshan website, the positioning is acknowledged as one of many best-conserved WWII battlefield stays. It accommodates 69 battlefield places, with roughly 13,200 meters of well-preserved trenches.
“The site serves not only as a memorial but also as an open-air museum, educating our younger generations about the sacrifices made during one of the war’s most critical campaigns,” mentioned Li Sheng, a vacationer visiting the positioning. “Standing where those young soldiers once fought, we can truly appreciate how hard-won peace really is.”
BRIDGES WITNESS NATION’S RISE
In 1942, the Japanese occupied huge territories west of the Nujiang River. On May fifth, the CEF blew up the Huitong Bridge, halting the enemy advance.
According to Huang Dingdong, vice chairman and secretary-general of the Longling County Association for Social Sciences, in the course of the 1944 counteroffensive in western Yunnan, the bridge was urgently repaired and restored to operation after 18 days, offering a essential passage for the CEF’s counterattack on Songshan Mountain and the recapturing of Longling.
After the victory, the bridge underwent repeated repairs and reinforcements, serving as a key transportation hub on the nationwide freeway in western Yunnan for a few years.
In 1974, a strengthened concrete freeway bridge named Hongqi Bridge was constructed 400 meters downstream from the Huitong Bridge, which was subsequently decommissioned and has been preserved to this present day.
Currently, upstream from the Huitong Bridge, a railway bridge with a complete size of 1,024 meters is below development. This bridge, a part of the Dali-Ruili Railway line in Yunnan, is poised to spice up native financial growth considerably sooner or later. As a key venture within the development of the China-Myanmar worldwide railway hall below the Belt and Road Initiative, it can additionally actively facilitate future financial and commerce cooperation in addition to people-to-people exchanges between China and ASEAN international locations.
“These three bridges stand side by side like historical markers of three eras, witnessing our nation’s great journey from seeking survival to achieving prosperity and strength,” Huang mentioned.
HISTORY REMEMBERED
On August 15, the eightieth anniversary of Japan’s announcement of unconditional give up in WWII, guests flocked to the memorial corridor of the anti-Japanese aggression conflict in western Yunnan, situated within the border metropolis of Tengchong, from early morning.
The memorial corridor presents the historical past of the troublesome but heroic resistance efforts in western Yunnan. Since its institution 12 years in the past, the memorial corridor has obtained over 12.2 million guests from greater than 20 international locations and areas.
According to Ma Juan, curator of the memorial corridor, guests can now scan QR codes to entry audio guides in each Chinese and English.
Inside the memorial corridor, over a thousand metal helmets worn by the CEF are organized in a matrix formation throughout three towering partitions. “The cruelty of war became concrete and visceral at this moment, leaving me profoundly sober,” mentioned Wang Zun, a college scholar visiting the exhibit.
Adjacent to the memorial corridor lies the National Martyrs Cemetery, the place 3,346 tombstones stand in remembrance of fallen troopers from the Tengchong Campaign, together with 19 Allied troops. From May to September 1944, after a grueling 127-day battle, Tengchong grew to become the primary county-level metropolis recaptured by Chinese forces in the course of the War of Resistance.
To this present day, Tengchong nonetheless awaits the return of extra heroic souls. “We have been actively searching for the remains of the CEF soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Myanmar, striving to bring them back to their long-yearned homeland at the earliest,” Ma mentioned.
Meanwhile, a race-against-time effort is underway to protect oral historic accounts of the War of Resistance in western Yunnan. At Yunnan Arts University, researchers have accomplished 280 minutes of high-definition video recordings with 14 surviving conflict veterans, whose common age is 95, and have developed spinoff merchandise utilizing AR expertise.
“A crucial dimension of archival work lies in achieving dynamic dissemination. Therefore, while continuously accumulating visual and oral history materials, we are also focusing on developing new modes of communication,” mentioned Xu Yaqing, venture advisor on the college.