China marks 89th anniversary of resistance war against Japanese aggression

For the Chinese people, the July 7th Incident remains as unforgettable an episode of World War II as Nazi Germany's Blitzkrieg invasion of Poland and Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor are for Westerners.

The 14-year war against Japanese aggression was the longest and largest fight against foreign aggression for the Chinese people in modern times. It came with great sacrifices — 35 million casualties among the Chinese military and civilian population — before Japan surrendered in 1945.

The many atrocities Japanese militants conducted in China, including the Nanjing massacre, large-scale human experimentation and germ warfare, also left a deep scar in the memory of Chinese people.

Chemical weapons deployed by Japanese troops caused more than 200,000 casualties among Chinese soldiers and civilians. After its defeat, Japan abandoned vast quantities of chemical weapons on Chinese soil, which have since caused poisoning and injuries to over 2,000 people, according to China's Ministry of National Defense.