By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

August 15th is a day that is worthwhile to commemorate because it was on that day in 1945 when the Japanese invaders surrendered.

Japanese invaders invaded China on 1931 after they occupied northeast China. Under Japanese occupation, all the Chinese must learn Japanese at that time.  Those who could not speak Chinese often faced being killed.  But if you could speak a little bit Japanese, sometimes you could survive.

The 14 years Japanese occupation almost changed the Chinese characteristics into being more obedient and tolerant.  That was a humiliation and disgrace, let alone experiencing all kinds of difficulties and hardship.

But on August 15th after 14 years of struggle, Japanese surrendered and China regained its dignity.

Today we commemorate this day not to ask the Japanese to compensate this or that, but to safeguard the peace we gained.  We should not let history repeat but open a new chapter to cooperate and safeguard the peaceful development environment.

As two important countries and neighbors, China and Japan should cooperate because the two sides are mutually complementary. China has vast land and huge population while Japan has high tech and more experience in development.  Japan can have good market if it has good relations with China.

If these two countries enjoy good relations, it will be conducive to the whole Asia pacific regions because they are the two strong countries.

To commemorate this day, we should try our best to safeguard the peace and develop further our economic, social, political and environmental development.

This year also marks 40th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.  May our friendship and good neighborly relationship forever.