DM Monitoring
CHANGSHA: It was a day of great significance each year for people in Zhijiang Dong Autonomous County, central China’s Hunan Province, to gather to remember history.
Qian Dexiang, a 70-year-old artist who was born in Zhijiang, also returned home to relive the joy of victory.
On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender. Japanese representatives handed over a map of Japanese troops deployed in China and signed a surrender memorandum in Zhijiang on Aug. 21, 1945.
Public memorial activities, including the rubbing of hand models, were held in Zhijiang to mark the 75th victory anniversary of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
Qian managed to find in the United States the original video of the surrender acceptance event in Zhijiang, and sent a copy back in 2014.
In 2008, Qian, who had been developing his painting career in the U.S., returned to his hometown.
During his visit to the Memorial Hall of the Anti-Japanese War and the Acceptance of the Japanese Surrender in Zhijiang, he was requested by the curator Wu Jianhong to create a large oil painting featuring the surrender ceremony, and the two spoke of the lost old footage of the ceremony recorded by U.S. journalists at the scene.
“I’ve been to many places and asked my friends to help look for the video clip for many years, but ended up with nothing,” Wu said.
He asked Qian in the U.S. to help look for the record.
Having searched for some time, Qian received a short video clip of some 10 seconds from a Japanese student. The clip further boosted the confidence of Qian and his wife, Tan Mingli, to find the original film.
