Concert commemorating World War II victory held in Sichuan

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II, known in China as the world anti-fascist war, the Sichuan People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries organized a concert featuring songs of the former Soviet Union on Friday afternoon.

During the 90-minute concert, Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese performers sang songs of the Soviet Union Patriotic War and Russian folk songs such as Katyusha and Holy War.

"Today is the memorial day for the 70th anniversary of the victory of the world anti-fascist war. Over 70 years ago, the havoc of war brought horrible disaster to the world's people. China and the Soviet Union as the main battlefields in Asia and Europe, respectively, made great contributions to the victory of the war," said Luo Yubin, president of the Sichuan People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

"The Soviet Union sent an air force volunteer team to China to aid China (in the fight against the invading Japanese). More than 200 pilots lost their lives in China and the team leader Kunischenk perished in Sichuan (in 1939 after shooting down six Japanese warplanes)," she said.

Held in the Sichuan Science and Technology Museum in downtown Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, the concert drew some 400 people, including more than 40 Russian, American, British, French, Danish, Ugandan, Peruvian, Kazakh, Canadian and Zambian people who work or live in Sichuan.

Bill Willmott, the 83-year-old son of the Canadian education missionary Leslie Willmott, who stayed in West China from 1921 to 1952, and all the members of a 12-member New Zealand sightseeing delegation he led to Chengdu, also attended the concert.

"My father helped China in the anti-fascist war. It is very meaningful for me to sit in the concert on the 70th anniversary of the victory of the world anti-fascist war," he said.

Willmott was born on the West China Union University campus in Chengdu, where he spent his childhood. On Thursday, he visited the house where he was born.