CRI听力:Marking Memorial Days Won't Cause Ultra-nationalistic Sentiment

Observers in China are dismissing concerns that marking these two days will lead to a surge of ultra-nationalistic sentiment or fervent anti-Japanese behavior.

CRI's Su Yi has more.

Reporter: There was not much fanfare as China's top legislature approved a bill to mark the end of a war that brought much misery to China, and even less for the date marking the start of a six-week long rampage of slaughter, rape and looting in the country's war-time capital by Japanese troops.

But observers say the bill nonetheless carries weighty consideration as it shows the country's determination to remember its agonizing history.

Dr. Joseph Cheng is a historian at the Baptist University of Hong Kong.

"Marking these important events as a public holiday may well offer opportunities for people to commemorate the occasion, will allow people to discuss and think about the issues concerned. And at this stage it certainly would be a signal to the Japanese government that the Chinese people, the Chinese nation remembers and expects the Japanese people to do the same."

Relations between Japan and its neighbors have been low in recent years.

Aside from escalating tension over territorial disputes with China and South Korea, the current Japanese cabinet also treaded on some facts associated with the Second World War.

There have been denials of the war-time sex slave issue, and school text books have been changed in an effort to reinforce Japan's territorial claims.

Cheng says observing remembrance days could actually ease tension between China and Japan.

"There is such a danger, but at the same time, even without designating the day as a public holiday, we do understand that provocative acts on the part of Japan may well cause adverse feelings and anger among Chinese people leading to protest activities."

Dr. Cheng reiterated that marking the two occasions engages the Chinese nation in self-reflection, and Japan as the perpetrators during the war have more reasons to do the same.

Professor Lam Kai Yin, a Sino-Japanese relation specialist at the City University of Hong Kong, while voicing a similar opinion, said as a legalized national policy the act does obligate the government to explain to the people what is expected of them.

"The Chinese government does have the obligation to explain to the Chinese people that the two memorial days are set for people to reflect on the human tragedy of war and its consequences, and reflect on why they should not have happened in the first place."

On a very positive note, Prof. Lam said possibilities should not be excluded that the Japanese nation could be able to follow the example of the Germans and friendship with China be fully restored.

For CRI, I am Su Yi.