What is history? Is history just a collection of past events?
Do we like to read history, just to read stories?
Of course not.
"The Great Reveal" is a column about history and humanities on Hubei Satellite TV, which has been broadcast since January 2012, and unconsciously, it has gone through 11 years.
Some history, told and told, may feel old, not new. However, some history, every time I talk about it, still let the editor I, can not forget.
Two more days are August 15, the day that Chinese cannot forget, the 77th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance. From the "918 Incident" in 1931 when Japan invaded northeast China, to August 15, 1945, when Japan announced its unconditional surrender, the 14-year arduous war of resistance is the memory that all Chinese cannot erase, and Chinese has won the victory against foreign invaders in modern times at great sacrifice and tragic cost.
In the tragic page of the history of china's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, we must not forget the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
Here is an excerpt of the Introduction of the Chinese Expeditionary Force from the Internet:
The Chinese Expeditionary Force was a combat force that China entered Burma against Japan during the War of Resistance Against Japan, also known as the "Chinese Expeditionary Force to Burma" and the "Chinese Expeditionary Force to Aid Burma". Formed in December 1941 under the Sino-British Agreement on the Joint Defense of the Burma Road, the Expeditionary Force was under the command of Lieutenant General Stilwell, Chief of Staff of the Allied Chinese Theater of Operations, and Commander Luo Zhuoying. The army was formed from the 5th, 6th and 66th Armies, with more than 100,000 people in 9 divisions.
Burma Highway
In March 1942, the Expeditionary Force entered Burma and launched the Burma Road Operation. After the defeat, most of them returned to Yunnan. In April 1943, the headquarters of the commander of the Expeditionary Force was rebuilt, later known as the West Yunnan Expeditionary Force, and one was withdrawn to India, called the Chinese Army in India. From October 1943 to May 1944, the Chinese Army in India and the West Yunnan Expeditionary Force successively launched the Burmese Campaign in Northern Yunnan, annihilating more than 30,000 Japanese troops. On January 27, 1945, the two armies met at Hatamachi. In March, it completed the task of opening the Burma Highway and withdrew to China. It was withdrawn in April 1945.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force is a model of direct military cooperation between China and its allies, and it is also the first time that Chinese troops have fought abroad since the Sino-Japanese War. From October 1943 to March 1945, the Chinese Army in India and the Chinese Expeditionary Force recaptured more than 50 towns and cities in northern Burma and western Yunnan, recovered 83,000 square kilometers of lost land in western Yunnan, and annihilated more than 49,000 Japanese troops. The Chinese army also made heavy sacrifices, with about 67,000 casualties.
About 67,000 officers and men were killed or wounded! The numbers are boring, the words are cold, but history has a temperature, and those who participated in the expeditionary force were all bloody Chinese soldiers, and behind each of them, there were countless Sacrifices of Chinese families.
My high school history teacher used to be one of them. The teacher's surname is Peng, he was over sixty years old when he taught us, retired, willing to teach history to a group of rural high school students, and now that he thinks about it, it should be completely out of a sense of responsibility and feelings.
Teacher Peng is thin, with gray hair and clear and bright eyes. When we read the history textbooks in high school, there was not much introduction to the frontal resistance of the Kuomintang, but Teacher Peng told about it in a special chapter, especially mentioning the section on the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
I don't know how much wealth Teacher Peng has made to me when he participated in the Chinese Expeditionary Force and was my history teacher.
Now, Teacher Peng has been gone for many years, but his story of the War of Resistance, the appearance of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and the glowing eyes when talking to us are still alive in my heart.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is a history that China cannot forget. Today, 77 years after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, most of the veterans of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression have withered and aged. However, veterans do not die, and veterans only worry about being forgotten.
Anti-War veterans
Starting tomorrow, we will compile and distribute texts and pictures about the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the headline of "Hubei Satellite TV Big Reveal", in order to pay tribute to the Chinese soldiers during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and to express our deep respect and remembrance to the countless Chinese Expeditionary Force soldiers who sacrificed their lives in foreign countries for the cause of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression!