"Even today, it's a scene that's still too distressing for me to recall. I don't feel like talking about it, but it's something I just can't forget," reminisces Lam Chun, president of the Society of the Veterans of the Original Hong Kong Independent Battalion of the Dongjiang Column.
Yet, Lam, now 91 — one of Hong Kong's last surviving guerrilla veterans who, from 1943 to 1945, fought alongside guerrillas led by the Communist Party of China in the battle to liberate the city from Japanese occupation — has long let her deeds do the talking.
With the approach of July 1, which marks the 105th anniversary of the CPC's founding, as well as the 29th year of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Lam talks to China Daily about the wartime experiences that have largely defined her life and her generation.
Why keep reviving an 85-year-old wound? "Young people today need to truly understand that victory and peace were not easily won. The stability, prosperity and happiness we now enjoy came at the cost of the blood and sacrifices of our forebearers," she says, referring to the day in May 1943, more than a year after Japanese forces seized control of Hong Kong in December 1941.
That day, Japanese soldiers stormed her family's home in Kowloon City and ransacked it, alleging that Lam's older sister had stolen military currency. Her sister, a former leader of the student movement that supported the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), was, in fact, secretly gathering intelligence for the CPC-led guerrillas.
At a tender age, Lam watched helplessly in horror as her sister was roped to the staircase and beaten savagely for almost an hour, a saber's blade grazing her sister's jugular at one point.
