Incidents in China's War against Japanese Aggression which ended 60 years ago are recalled in a special exhibition now open in Shanghai.

As part of the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), artists from the Shanghai Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting have assembled more than 60 artworks.

As long ago as 2001, several artists from the academy visited some historical sites associated with the war to find inspiration and their various understandings of the struggle can be seen in the works they have created for this exhibition.

Among the exhibits, Three Friends in Cold Winter by Cheng Shifa, a former graduate of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and one of China's best-known painters, is definitely a highlight.

There is a story behind the painting. At the frontline during the war, Chinese soldiers rescued two Japanese girls, the children of a Japanese merchant, caught in the fighting. When General Nie Rongzhen (1899-1992) found the two girls who had been saved, he adopted them. After Japan surrendered, with the help of the Red Cross, he ensured that the children were returned safely home.

In the early 1980s, one of the rescued girls, then in her late 40s, came to Beijing to search for General Nie. Upon meeting him again she fell weeping to the ground. Nie then gave her the painting, Three Friends in Cold Winter, which Cheng had sent him as a gift years earlier.

The painting's message is that friendship between people of two countries can endure the trials of icy winds and frozen snow.

When Cheng was told that his painting had been given as a gift to the rescued Japanese girl, he did the painting again and once more sent it to Nie.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, Cheng at the age of 84, set about painting the work for the third time.

Another impressive painting, "December 1937, Nanjing Sacrifice" is the work of the president of the local academy, Shi Dawei, a graduate from the Fine Arts College of Shanghai University. The painting marks Japan's wartime atrocity.

"I have been thinking about creating a painting about the Nanjing Massacre for the past 10 years. The war brought not only disaster to the Chinese people but also pains to the Japanese people too," says Shi. "Only through closely linking our hearts with human fate and emotions can we artists create marvelous masterpieces."

(Shanghai Daily August 5, 2005)