Wartime museum serves as grim reminder of atrocities

Lost documents

Qiao Lingmei, a senior researcher at the museum, said researchers have been working hard to investigate and verify the whereabouts of precious documents and relics relating to the war.

"We will spare no efforts to find them, so they can be better preserved, researched and shown to the public," she said.

Qiao, who has worked to collect and preserve historic relics for more than 35 years, said she has many unforgettable memories related to her work at the wartime museum.

"Many years ago, I was included in a small team that was sent to find and collect relics in Northeast China. During a chat with residents in Dunhua, Jilin province, we were told there was a pile of old artillery shells in the backyard of a store that might be of interest to us," she recalled.

Qiao and her colleagues rushed to the shop and were surprised to find the shells had been left by the Japanese, and that some of them were chemical weapons.

"We shook some of the shells and it sounded like there was liquid inside them. A local told us they could be chemical weapons and showed us his injured hands, which he said had been burned by chemical gases in the shells," she said.

The team was aware that the shells could be evidence of Japanese atrocities, which meant they were valuable objects and worth preserving.

"We contacted an explosives disposal specialist at a local ordnance factory to seek assistance. He helped us sort the shells and pick those that were not hazardous. We bought those particular shells from the storekeeper and brought them back (to Beijing)," Qiao said.

She stressed that every time she and her colleagues discuss their experiences of travelling around China finding and collecting relics, they feel honored because their work has helped testify to the history of the Chinese people's wartime struggle against the invading forces.