http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20050707TDY04002.htmPatriotic fervor aflame in China / 60th anniversary of victory in war to becelebrated
Masahiko Takekoshi / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
As part of celebrations commemorating the 60th anniversary of its victory in the war against Japan, China is preparing for Thursday's anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, which triggered the war.
As the patriotic campaign to commemorate the occasion becomes fervent, the Memorial Hall of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in the suburbs of Beijing will reopen Thursday with an exhibition and commemorative events.
But the Chinese authorities seem to be enforcing a policy of containing any anti-Japanese activities started by its citizens, which may lead to social disruption.
On June 28, China's official Xinhua News Agency, listed the three most important anniversaries as pivotal points of the patriotic campaign. The Foundation Day of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident anniversary on July 7 and the day of Japan's surrender on Aug. 15. The main purpose of the campaign, according to Xinhua, is to confirm "the role of the CCP that led China to victory in the war against Japan, aimed at improving the party's centripetal power."
The official paper of the Chinese People's Liberation Army has regularly been running full-page specials featuring the history of the war and stories on ordinary people's wartime experiences.
The media also has been encouraged to uncover new material about Japan's aggression. On Saturday, Xinhua reported the discovery of the Imperial Japanese Army's chemical weapon test field, the largest of its kind, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomic Region.
===
Patriotic facilities
In June, Beijing decided to apply to register the Marco Polo Bridge as a World Heritage Site, according to Xinhua, as a witness of the China-Japan war. "Similar moves have been made with the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in Nanjing in Jingsu Province and the site of the former facility of the Imperial Japanese Army's notorious 731 unit in Halbin in Heilongjiang Province.
On Friday, a memorial exhibition recreating the CCP's history of anti-Japanese activities using statues and diorama opened at the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Museum in Beijing. On Aug. 15, the largest civil war museum in China, built by a private entrepreneur, will open in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Every weekend, operas and concerts featuring patriotic subjects are staged around the country. At the Marco Polo Bridge, a commemorative meeting with 700 people, including those involved in the 1937 incident, took place in late June.
Major bookstores have set up a special corner for books on the victory anniversary, while anti-Japanese editorial cartoons by Yu Xinqiang are proving so popular, especially among young readers, that the work is often sold out both at bookstores and online shops.
===
Anti-Japan Web sites
After anti-Japanese protests spread across China in April, some anti-Japanese Web sites were shut down. They were allowed back on the Internet in June although contents declared by the authorities as illegal, such as information on the anti-Japanese rallies in April, were deleted.
On several Web sites, some messages called for memorial gatherings at the Marco Polo Bridge on Thursday. But one person concerned told The Yomiuri Shimbun on Tuesday, "There's no permission [from the authorities], so there's no prospect of going ahead with it."
(Jul. 7, 2005)
