Kihara Yositaka, head of Asahi Broadcasting Corp. (Japan) Shanghai Bureau, paid a visit to and exchanged views in Nanjing Memorial Museum of Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs

At 14 p.m., March 2, 2010, a delegation consisting of three persons led by Kihara Yositaka head of Asahi Broadcasting Corp. (Japan) Shanghai Bureau, came to Nanjing Memorial Museum of Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs for exchange of views, interview, visit and photographing. Mr. Wang Pengshan, head of Administration of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum accepted their interview at invitation.

Reporters visited the exhibition museum with great interest, as well as interviewed Mr. Wang Pengshan on the spot in an exhibition hall. The interview went on in a friendly and candid atmosphere. A reporter asked Wang, “What was the reason and significance for you to have this memorial museum built?” Wang answered, “A batch of excellent pilots sacrificed in China during the Shanghai Anti-Japanese campaign in 1932. The Kuomintang government had a Cemetery of Aviation Martyrs built in Wangjiawan to bury them. In 1995, the Anti-Japanese Aviation Monument was built as well. To commemorate Chinese and foreign martyrs of aviation in a better way, as well as live up to the wishes of the relatives of these martyrs, we had this large Memorial Museum of Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs built on the basis of the “Aviation Cemetery” and “Anti-Japanese Monument”, thus having formed the trinity layout of “Aviation Cemetery”, “Anti-Japanese Monument” and “Anti-Japanese Museum”. The completion of the Anti-Japanese Museum has further enhanced the international influence of Jiangsu Province and Nanjing, as well as given better play to its role as a bridge in friendly exchanges between the people on both sides of Taiwan Straits.

  After the interview, reporters also visited theme exhibitions in four exhibition halls with delight, as well as showed strong interest in valuable objects displayed in the exhibition halls. They photographed these objects as well. In their opinion, these valuable objects and historical documents have restored those warring years in a better way. In addition, they have been playing a very good role in educating young people both in China and Japan having never experienced war, enabling them to keep that episode of history firmly in mind, cherish the hard-earned peace, as well as try to perpetuate the friendship between China and Japan.