介绍:
In 1937, six years after Japan waged its full-fledged invasion of northeastern China, the Battle of Songhu broke out along the Yangtze region. Though Chinese soldiers fought valiantly against much superior enemy for months, eventually, Shanghai fell. Many residents of the city suffered devastating losses and became refugees.
Yao Zhilu, an elementary school teacher, was one of them. In order to make a living, he left his hometown and family to float around the hinterland. During the journey, he wrote a dozen of mails home.
Here is an excerpt of Yao's letter to his wife.
"My dear, it has been two months since I left. I have nothing but sorrow and anguish here…During the preparation of the war, terror shrouds Wuhan. No matter if it is Chongqing, Chengdu, Hong Kong or Shanghai, everyone is on the go. I thought life would be different if I came to Hankou. Now, my hope is ruined…How about you and the children in Shanghai? Probably the same as always…People are less human during troubled times…I am resigned to my fate!"
And these messages became his last words. One year later, Yao Zhilu died of illness and never saw his family again.
During the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, countless heartfelt letters like this were written by soldiers, scholars and average men. Delivered or not, these inked statements document the rage, fear, frustration and courage during that turbulent age and stand as the collective memory of that momentous period throughout the Chinese history.
However, for today's younger generation, these priceless words are dissolving with time. That's why Zhang Ding, Director of the Research Center on Letters Home at Renmin University of China, decided to collect letters written during the 1930s and 1940s.
"A letter home is the reflection of one's inner world. Compared with other documents, it's different by nature. That's why in ancient China, people called this kind of letter as the correspondence of heart. In this sense, the letters we collect are the embodiments of the spiritual history during the War against Japanese Aggression. When we read these writings seventy years later, we are not just enshrining the past. We are embracing the future as well."
In the book, "Letters Home: Our Fathers' Memories during the War against Japanese Aggression", or in Chinese, "Kang Zhan Jia Shu: Wo Men Xian Bei De Kang Zhan Ji Yi", nearly one hundred letters are assembled. No matter it is a long-winded, infatuated letter between two love birds, or a short note written by a soldier before he went off to war, deep affection were weaved into those sentences. In face of great difficulties or impasse, some writings even indicate an unflagging spirit and extraordinary equanimity.
Here is a piece of Lieutenant-General Dai Anlan's last letter to his wife, read by his youngest son.
"Dear Hexin: this time, I am under orders to defend Toungoo…We are far from any reinforcements and the enemy proceeds too fast, my troop is left along. We have decided to fight till the very end. What an honor to die for my country! "
According to Zhang Ding, editor-in-chief of the collection, the book not only amasses mails written by renowned officers at warfronts, but also gathers a significant amount of messages exchanged between average men and their families.
"For people around my age, due to the education we received and books we read, our understanding about the War against Japanese Aggression is limited and one-sided. Whenever talking about that period, we always come up with those grand wartime scenarios and great decision-makers. But actually, there are many unsung heroes. By collecting these letters, we salvage the segments of past and revive the long-gone memories. I strongly believe that ordinary people should be the mainstay of history. "
Readers speak highly of this collection.
"If the entire history of the war is a magnificent symphony, then those letters home compose one of the most vigorous musical notes. They provide vivid and approachable details of that period."
"Letters home are real history. They use crumbs of words to authentically revive the past and people's spirits. In that difficult time, when winning the war became a matter of survival, the voices expressed in these letters are truly soul-stirring. Honestly, if possible, we should turn this collection into textbook. "
"Letters Home: Our Fathers' Memories during the War against Japanese Aggression" is listed as Book of the Year by China Book Review Association.
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