greenlion
19 Sep 2004, 03:42 AM
Sirens to wail across China to mark 1931 Japan attack
18 Sep 2004 07:41:17 GMT
Source: Reuters
http://image2.sina.com.cn/dy/c/2004-09-19/U660P1T1D4359186F21DT20040919032433.jpg
People stopped driving in the street and wailing trumpet in 9:18 pm of sep 18th
http://image2.sina.com.cn/dy/c/2004-09-19/U660P1T1D4359186F23DT20040919000353.jpg
In Nanjing -where massacre happend
BEIJING, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Sirens will wail across more than 100 Chinese cities and cars will stop and honk their horns on Saturday to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the start of Japan's invasion of China, state media said.
Many Chinese harbour deep resentment of Japan's wartime past and what they see as its failure to own up to atrocities. Beijing estimates up to 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded by invading Japanese troops from 1931 to 1945.
Cities from Hangzhou in the east coast to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in the Himalayas were due to take part in the commemoration of the "Mukden Incident" on Sept. 18, 1931, when Japanese troops began occupying northeast China, then known as Manchuria.
The anniversary takes on bigger significance this year because Saturday is National Defence Education Day, which falls on the third Saturday of September and on which sirens are traditionally sounded in major cities.
Some sirens went off at 9.18 a.m. (0118 GMT), while others were timed for 9:18 p.m. (1318 GMT), for instance in the northeastern city of Shenyang, formerly Mukden, officials said by telephone. The time represents the 18th day of the ninth month.
The Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said cars would stop in the street at 9.18 p.m. and sound their horns.
It showed a picture of students of Laoshan Primary School, Shandong province, holding a banner at "Yangkou landing point of Japanese invading troops".
The banner read: "Keep firm the memory of history and never forget about national humiliation."
A handful of protesters gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, waving flags and banners and denouncing Japanese wartime aggression.
Xia Shuqin, 75, a Chinese survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, has sued two Japanese writers for disputing her story that as an eight-year-old she was stabbed by a Japanese soldier and hid in a room full of dead bodies with her four-year-old sister for 14 days.
The defamation suit, which began on Wednesday, was the first of its kind, the China Daily newspaper said.
China says 300,000 civilians died in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre when Japanese imperial troops overran the Chinese Nationalist capital.
Diplomatic ties between China and Japan have often been frayed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to a Shinto shrine for Japan's war dead as well as disputes over sovereignty of a cluster of tiny islands in the East China Sea.
But the two Asian giants have moved to strengthen ties in the face of the North Korean nuclear crisis. Trade is booming and China is eager to attract Japanese investment and tourists, while Japan has its eye on the vast mainland market.
China's loss to Japan in the Asian Cup soccer final in August fuelled anti-Japanese sentiment. Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi has since been appointed ambassador to Japan in a bid to mend ties.
On Thursday, China rejected a proposal by a Japanese private advisory panel to Koizumi that the world's most populous nation be described as a military threat, saying it posed no danger to its smaller neighbour.
China is one of the world's nuclear powers and its People's Liberation Army is the world's biggest with 2.5 million men and women.
China marks 1931 invasion
AP
BEIJING: China allowed a brief protest outside the Japanese embassy and planned to sound sirens in more than 100 cities yesterday as it commemorated the start of Japan's 1931 invasion amid official unease at Tokyo's new diplomatic and military ambitions.
The official commemorations were the biggest to date and came at a time of rising anti-Japanese sentiment, stoked by a communist government that regarded Japan as its rival for regional superpower status.
In Beijing, police let 20 protesters gather outside the Japanese embassy. They held banners opposing Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and its claim to a disputed island chain.
“The Chinese people who have fully suffered the wounds of Japanese militarism must strain every nerve to be vigilant!” one protester, Zhang Jianyong, said through a loudspeaker.
The demonstrators marched away after a few minutes waving Chinese flags and singing the national anthem. Zhang sounded a hand-cranked siren at 9.18am – representing the Sept 18 date of the 1931 invasion – but it was quickly confiscated by police.
Cities throughout China also planned to sound air-raid sirens and hold public ceremonies.
The attack on the north-eastern city of Shenyang, then known as Mukden, led to Japan's occupation of China's north-east. That was followed in 1937 by the occupation of much of China that lasted until Tokyo's 1945 surrender at the end of World War II.
Many Chinese resented what they regarded as Japan's failure to atone for its aggression and millions of Chinese deaths.
The communist government keeps memories of the “Mukden Incident” alive through state media and schoolbooks and uses the date to rally nationalism. It was designated “National Defence Education Day” four years ago.
In Shenyang, several thousand people were expected to attend an hour-long memorial service at the city's monument to the invasion, according to the local government.
18 Sep 2004 07:41:17 GMT
Source: Reuters
http://image2.sina.com.cn/dy/c/2004-09-19/U660P1T1D4359186F21DT20040919032433.jpg
People stopped driving in the street and wailing trumpet in 9:18 pm of sep 18th
http://image2.sina.com.cn/dy/c/2004-09-19/U660P1T1D4359186F23DT20040919000353.jpg
In Nanjing -where massacre happend
BEIJING, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Sirens will wail across more than 100 Chinese cities and cars will stop and honk their horns on Saturday to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the start of Japan's invasion of China, state media said.
Many Chinese harbour deep resentment of Japan's wartime past and what they see as its failure to own up to atrocities. Beijing estimates up to 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded by invading Japanese troops from 1931 to 1945.
Cities from Hangzhou in the east coast to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in the Himalayas were due to take part in the commemoration of the "Mukden Incident" on Sept. 18, 1931, when Japanese troops began occupying northeast China, then known as Manchuria.
The anniversary takes on bigger significance this year because Saturday is National Defence Education Day, which falls on the third Saturday of September and on which sirens are traditionally sounded in major cities.
Some sirens went off at 9.18 a.m. (0118 GMT), while others were timed for 9:18 p.m. (1318 GMT), for instance in the northeastern city of Shenyang, formerly Mukden, officials said by telephone. The time represents the 18th day of the ninth month.
The Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said cars would stop in the street at 9.18 p.m. and sound their horns.
It showed a picture of students of Laoshan Primary School, Shandong province, holding a banner at "Yangkou landing point of Japanese invading troops".
The banner read: "Keep firm the memory of history and never forget about national humiliation."
A handful of protesters gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, waving flags and banners and denouncing Japanese wartime aggression.
Xia Shuqin, 75, a Chinese survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, has sued two Japanese writers for disputing her story that as an eight-year-old she was stabbed by a Japanese soldier and hid in a room full of dead bodies with her four-year-old sister for 14 days.
The defamation suit, which began on Wednesday, was the first of its kind, the China Daily newspaper said.
China says 300,000 civilians died in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre when Japanese imperial troops overran the Chinese Nationalist capital.
Diplomatic ties between China and Japan have often been frayed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to a Shinto shrine for Japan's war dead as well as disputes over sovereignty of a cluster of tiny islands in the East China Sea.
But the two Asian giants have moved to strengthen ties in the face of the North Korean nuclear crisis. Trade is booming and China is eager to attract Japanese investment and tourists, while Japan has its eye on the vast mainland market.
China's loss to Japan in the Asian Cup soccer final in August fuelled anti-Japanese sentiment. Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi has since been appointed ambassador to Japan in a bid to mend ties.
On Thursday, China rejected a proposal by a Japanese private advisory panel to Koizumi that the world's most populous nation be described as a military threat, saying it posed no danger to its smaller neighbour.
China is one of the world's nuclear powers and its People's Liberation Army is the world's biggest with 2.5 million men and women.
China marks 1931 invasion
AP
BEIJING: China allowed a brief protest outside the Japanese embassy and planned to sound sirens in more than 100 cities yesterday as it commemorated the start of Japan's 1931 invasion amid official unease at Tokyo's new diplomatic and military ambitions.
The official commemorations were the biggest to date and came at a time of rising anti-Japanese sentiment, stoked by a communist government that regarded Japan as its rival for regional superpower status.
In Beijing, police let 20 protesters gather outside the Japanese embassy. They held banners opposing Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and its claim to a disputed island chain.
“The Chinese people who have fully suffered the wounds of Japanese militarism must strain every nerve to be vigilant!” one protester, Zhang Jianyong, said through a loudspeaker.
The demonstrators marched away after a few minutes waving Chinese flags and singing the national anthem. Zhang sounded a hand-cranked siren at 9.18am – representing the Sept 18 date of the 1931 invasion – but it was quickly confiscated by police.
Cities throughout China also planned to sound air-raid sirens and hold public ceremonies.
The attack on the north-eastern city of Shenyang, then known as Mukden, led to Japan's occupation of China's north-east. That was followed in 1937 by the occupation of much of China that lasted until Tokyo's 1945 surrender at the end of World War II.
Many Chinese resented what they regarded as Japan's failure to atone for its aggression and millions of Chinese deaths.
The communist government keeps memories of the “Mukden Incident” alive through state media and schoolbooks and uses the date to rally nationalism. It was designated “National Defence Education Day” four years ago.
In Shenyang, several thousand people were expected to attend an hour-long memorial service at the city's monument to the invasion, according to the local government.