Tuyun Pass: A Period of History that Should Never Be Forgotten

August， a month of laurel blossoms in China，is the time for the Chinese people to remember the heroic fighters against foreign invasion. On August 31st， to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the world’s victory against fascism，an event was held in Tuyun Pass Forest Park (Guiyang， Guizhou Province) to commemorate the intemational medical aid workers who came to China during the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

The venue once served as wartime headquarters and training center for the Rescue Corps of the Red Cross Society of China. Those attending the com- memorative event included 30 people from 10 families descended from non-Chinese medical staff such as Dr. Rolf Becker， Dr. Ianto Kaneti and Dr. Stani- slaw Moishe Flato; in addition， there were 32 people from 14 families de-scended from Chinese medical staff of that tune such as Zhou Shoukai， Yang Xishou， Xu Weilian and Zhang Shigai;descendants of Lt. Gen. Robert K. S.Lim， a well-known overseas Chinese who headed the Rescue Corps; and six historians from China and abroad. The participants paid homage to their an-cestors who had worked heart and soul in the wartime medical service.

Foreign friends came to Tuyun Pass to“fight for common freedom”

Historical records show that over 70 years ago， when China was facing intensive Japanese aggression， more than 30 doctors from nme countries，including Germany， Bulgaria， Spain，Romania， Austria and Poland， travelled to Tuyun Pass， one of China’s wartime rear areas， to work round-the-clock with 3，000 Chinese doctors and nurses of the Rescue Corps of the Red Cross Society of China.

From March 1939 t0 1945， they performed more than 120，000 0pera-tions and treated more than six million sick or wounded soldiers and civilians，greatly contributing to the ultimate vic-tory over fascism.

Seventy years later， their names live on. “To fight for common free-dom”-a simple but soul-stirring slo-gan that Dr. Stanislaw Moishe Flato wrote on a banner -best explains why they came to China. Despite the hard conditions， they never stopped working for the great cause.

According to his niece， Dr. Wil-helm Mann， in his later years， would always share with his family those days when he served in China， which he de-scribed as“unforgettable”.

“For many of them， fighting against fascism was the most glorious part of their life，”said Robert， a de-scendant of Dr. Mamlok， in a speech given on behalf of the descendants of the intemational medical volunteers.

“A place of many moving stories”

“The stories that happened here many years ago need to be rediscov-ered and made known to more people，”said Dr. Yang Xishouhe's daughter，Yang Yongxuan， sitting before the monumental sculpture she designed for the historic site. Without her father’s memoirs， she would never have known what he had done here alongside inter-national colleagues. To discover more about her father， she has made many trips to Tuyun Pass， where she heard many moving stories.

Dr. Song Hongji， now 101， still remembers an eight-year-old girl he met in the wartime when he worked with his father at Tuyun Pass. The girl knelt down in front of him asking him to save her dying mother. In his ad-vanced years， Dr. Song came to the site hoping that he would have the chance to meet the girl and know what had be-come ofher.

In fact， what Dr. Song experi-enced was only one ofthe many touch-ing stories. In response to a call for the collection of such stories， Peng Hongshu， a retiree from the provincial broadcasting and TV station， presented a script he wrote in which there was the dramatic love story between Ianto Kaneti， a Bulgarian doctor， and the Chinese nurse Zhang Sunfen， a gradu-ate from the Department of Biology of Yanjing University (today’s Peking University).

The couple got to know each other when working in the Tuyun Pass area and got married in 1942. It is also worth mentioning that their first son wasnamed“Baozhong”， a combination of the first characters of the Chinese word for“Bulgaria” and that for“China”.

“I didn’t know the meaning of myname until I grew up”， said Baozhong，now aged 72， making his second trip to Tuyun Pass after a visit with his parents back in 1989 that gave him a great af! finity for the place.

“A lot of moving stories remamunknown， waiting to be discovered，”said Yang Yongxuan. For that purpose，she hopes to build a memorial museum to house the historical materials that are now available and those still to be collected.

“A period of history worth being engraved in our mind”

Participating in the commemora-tion， a group of students in blue-white uniforms was particularly eye-catch-ing. They walked around， from the memorial sculpture to the art exhibi-tion， thirsting for knowledge about the nti-fascist fighters’heroic deeds. The youngsters， from Guiyang Minority Middle School， had come at the invita-tion of the organizers because they had successfully launched a project entitled“Tuyun Pass--Intemational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Monument”and won first prize in the Guizhou Ado-lescents Science Technology Innova-tion Contest and the second prize in the 28th contest at national level.

According to one of them， JiaFei， their project was about those re-markable stories and great deeds of the ICRC members at Tuyun Pass. Under the instruction of their history teacher，Wang Yilan， 10 students started the project in September 2012， and suc-cessfully finished it in March 2013 to much acclain.

Jia Fei was shocked when learn-ing about the episode for the first timein a history class.“I had never known that such things had happened in our region，” she said. To carry out the proj-ect， they consulted documents， visited the neighborhoods near the Tuyun Pass historic site， and sent out l，000 ques-tionnaires. Although they were met with misunderstanding and reluctance，they managed to carry it through.

“What inpressed me most in theprocess was the fact that many stillknow little about this period of his-tory，” said Jia， “which proved the ne-cessity of our research on the Tuyun Pass， and motivated us to explore more stories of what happened.”Through the project， Jia acquired more knowledge about this episode in Chinese history，which， she says， is too significant to be allowed to sink into oblivion.