CRI听力:New Details for War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression

The research results were unveiled at a press conference on Tuesday.

According to the released figures, Chinese forces killed, wounded and captured over 1.5 million Japanese troops during its War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

Meanwhile, over the course of 14 years of the war, China suffered a total of over 35 million military and non-military casualties, with military casualties reaching more than 3.8 million.

The combined number accounted for a third of the total casualties of all the countries in WWII.

The country also suffered property loss valued at more than 100 billion dollars, using the exchange rate of 1937, while the indirect economic losses reached as high as 500 billion dollars.

Li Zhongjie, former deputy director of Party History Research Center of CPC Central Committee, says the research evidences atrocities committed by Japanese forces and refutes denials by Japanese rightists over Japan's invasion of China.

"The Japanese government has been reluctant to acknowledge the Nanjing Massacre. But it's widely known that the Nanjing incident was not the only atrocity the Japanese troops had committed in China. The evidence we have collected shows that they committed a total of 173 major atrocities with each victimizing at least 800 Chinese civilians."

Li adds that the Kuomintang Party forces also played an important role in the war.

He says KMT's important role was shown in its organization of the frontline battlefield, its launching of and participation in more than 20 key battles and organization of the expeditionary forces in the battlefield of Yunnan, southwest China, and Myanmar.

Wang Jianlang, director of the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, reiterates that the Chinese people made great contribution to the final victory in WWII.

"The Chinese forces pinned down the Japanese invaders, forced them to drop the plan to move northward and helped prevent the Russians from fighting on two fronts. Meanwhile, the war in China distracted the Japanese who were trying to march south, gaining time for the allied forces on other major battlefields to prepare for the final counter attack."

China has planned a series of activities this year marking the 70th anniversary of the world's anti-fascist war and its victory in the war against the Japanese aggression.

The highlight of the memorials is a military parade set for September 3 at Tiananmen Square that will be attended by a group of foreign leaders.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has also invited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the event.

For CRI, I am Luo Wen.