On July 7, 1937, invading Japanese troops illegally occupied a railway junction and attacked Lugou Bridge, often known as the Marco Polo Bridge, on the outskirts of Beijing. It marked the beginning of Japan's all-out aggression in the War of Resistance against Japan, and eventually escalated into World War II.

In Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, people gathered to hold a memorial ceremony for those who perished in the Nanjing Massacre. More than 300,000 Chinese were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops in the first winter of the war.

Seventy-five-year-old Xiong Zhijian, who attended Wednesday's ceremony, lost his parents 67 years ago. "Chinese youth should bear history in mind, stay alert, guard against Japanese militarism and never allow the tragedy to happen again," he said.

The author of a book exposing the atrocities of the Japanese invaders during the massacre says the purpose of the book is not to instigate hate, but to encourage peace in the world. Understanding history properly is a way of helping to develop friendly Sino-Japanese relations and world peace.

The date of July 7 is impressed deeply on the minds of the people in China's northeast. The three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning -- once collectively known as Manchuria -- were overrun by Japanese invaders during the war.

Even now, chemical weapons abandoned by the departing Japanese troops at the end of the war jeopardize the lives of local people.

(CRI July 8, 2004)