August 15, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. It is necessary to walk down memory lane regarding the worst atrocities of those dark days. One story from the global conflict tells of a Chinese family which saw war atrocities first-hand while living in the Philippines. CGTN Host Tian Wei heard their story through the eyes of Shirley Young, a U.S. businesswoman and chair of the U.S.-China Cultural Institute.
Shirley's father Clarence Kuangson Young, a Chinese diplomat, was covertly killed by the Japanese in Manila during the war. Her mother, Juliana Koo, a strong matriarch, was a young single socialite in Shanghai. After marriage, she managed to take care of not only her family, but also the Chinese embassy in the Philippine capital. But nothing could have prepared her mother, or her family, for the tragedy and misery that followed her father's death.
Young revealed that her father was arrested because "he didn't cooperate in collecting money for the Japanese side." And since they wouldn't cooperate, the Japanese chose to execute all of them. And there is actually a record because there was a farmer there who saw this whole event, and he saw seven people, including her father, were taken out.
"They had to dig their own graves first. Then they put a blindfold on them. And my father didn't want the blindfold. And then they shot them. And actually, according to the written record, he pointed at his heart because apparently they didn't kill him on the first shot. He pointed to his heart, and then of course they killed him," she recounted.
Young told CGTN that was how all of them died. This is obviously a huge war crime.
Young also shared her memories of a shootout on the street. "We were on a main road at where the American troops came in, and so we saw this big convoy, jeeps and trucks and stuff with soldiers. Americans were entering into the Philippines. And this guy is right under our window, and he's about to shoot at them," she continued, "So you saw those, but we knew how dangerous that was for the soldiers. When they opened fire, they all got out of their jeeps and got their guns out. So you could see these very scary things like in movies."
Even to this day, she still remembers seeing many ambulances coming in with all the people who had been wounded. And the bodies were stacked up.
For Young, war is really devastating to people in terms of the human cost, as well as how much people suffer.
There have been a lot of debates about how to remember history. When it comes to reflecting on the history as well as looking to the future, Young said war is about power. It's all about who is bigger than the other, who has more military might, who's going to take over more property, and who's going to dominate markets.
"But it doesn't particularly matter to the individual. We can all live together. And today the world is so interconnected. It's a different world. So it never makes sense to me, even today, to see the posturing and the way that the media covers who's up and who's down, and who's more powerful and who has more military. It's like we're all playing a big game, when in fact what people want is a good opportunity to live their lives, to improve their lives, to take care of their children, to enjoy life," said Young.
World Insight with Tian Wei is an international platform for debate and intelligent discussion. It is the meeting point of both the highly influential and rising voices, facilitated by host Tian Wei. It provides nutrition to form your own thoughts and ideas through 45 minutes of live debate and interviews.
Schedule: Monday-Saturday
Time (GMT): 1415, 2015
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