By Han Shasha, People’s Daily Online
San Francisco, July 9, 2014, — July 7 marks the 77th anniversary of the start of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression. The buildup of the world’s first overseas memorial hall to memorize the war was announced Monday in San Francisco.
Florence Fang speaks at the news conference (photo provided by Barry Chang).
Florence Fang, curator of the memorial hall, said at the press conference that the reason for naming the museum “WWII Pacific War Memorial Hall” is that Chinese and Americans fought shoulder by shoulder against the fascist during the world war two. The history should be memorized.
The memorial hall is located in the center of Chinatown in San Francisco. Fang said that the location may increase chances that visitors who travel in the city may stop by and learn Japan’s atrocities during the war.
She introduced that the memorial hall will house exhibits of historical photographs, documents, newspapers and other historical items to protect history and educate the next generations with valuable historical records.
Yuan Nansheng, consul general of China in San Francisco, congratulated the launch of the museum. He said during the past 70 years, the international environment had changed tremendously featured with peace, cooperation and development. Memorizing the history does not mean to enhance hatred, but to draw lessons from history and eye the future.
Larry Jobe, president at Flying Tiger Historical Organization, who was also one flying member during World War Two, shared his personal experience at the conference. Once he ran into conservation with several young Japanese soldiers and asked whether they had sensed any hostility from Chinese people because of their country’s aggression. He was stunned by their reply that they never heard of the history. He said, “Memorial parks and museum like this are extremely important because they record history through magazines, newspapers, pictures, artifacts, personal accounts of the people who live the history and still alive to record the story.”
He said, “Hopefully, we will not repeat that aggression again.”