China
21:57, 15-Aug-2017
Malaysia commemorates southeast Asian volunteers in WWII
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As Asian countries marked the surrender of Japan 72 years ago during the World War II, some in Malaysia are taking note of war heroes, whose connection to China proved vital.
The descendants of truck drivers and engineers are commemorating their forefathers who helped deliver goods from Myanmar into Yunnan during the Second World War.
The children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of volunteer truck drivers from Malaya who remained in China after the war journeyed to Malaysia to visit war memorials.
In July 1937, Japan blockaded China’s ports. China then constructed a road to Burma, and then set about recruiting volunteer drivers and engineers from Southeast Asia to ferry essential medicines, munitions and other supplies overland from Burma to Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Until 1939, more than 3,000 men signed up, most of them are ethnic Chinese. Around one third of that number perished from accidents, diseases or attacks during the treacherous 1,100km journeys.
About 1,200 returned to Southeast Asia, but hundreds of their relatives settled in China.