Shanghai Daily/Xinhua

Two war veterans share a light moment at a ceremony held in Shanxi Province yesterday to mark the 60th anniversary of Japan's surrender.  The province was  a major base for the Chinese Communist army fighting the Japanese aggressors.-Xinhua

When Shanghai farmer Ye Lingen learned that Japan had surrendered 60 years ago, he rushed to his family's graves.
His mother had died in a Japanese bombing attack on the city. His father and brother were bayoneted to death by Japanese soldiers, and his grandmother died in prison after she was forced to eat human flesh.
On that day long ago, Ye cried that their deaths had been avenged.
Now 80, Ye returned to the family graves yesterday as he's done on every August 15 since 1945, the day World War II ended in the Pacific.
The war years are still fresh in his memory, and during every annual grave-side visit he prays for lasting peace.
Ye's family was among the more than 20 million Chinese who lost their lives in what the country calls the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Most cities across the nation marked the event with remembrance ceremonies and special exhibitions depicting hardship and heroism.
In Shanghai, thousands of people - from students to government officials - honored the day with a look back at history.
Among the events, an exhibition entitled "Eternal Memory" opened to the public yesterday at the Shanghai Art Museum.
It features 200 works depicting the war's suffering and its heroes and will run through August 23.
At another event, Wang Xuan, representing victims of Japan's chemical warfare units, delivered a lecture on a lawsuit seeking compensation from the Japanese government.
During his talk, Wang declared that Chinese people must not forget the Japanese invasion.
"The litigation is not only a war compensation issue but also historical education," he said.
Also yesterday, 11 city residents who were captured by the Japanese received a special gift: a book called "Painful Experiences of Forced Labor."
The book's formal launch will be hosted by the Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore this weekend.
To compile the edition, attorneys from the Shanghai Tianhong Law Firm and students at East China Normal University collected stories from 28 city residents who were forced into slave labor by the Japanese invaders.
"The book is designed as a record for further lawsuits," said Tianhong's Zhu Miaochun, the edition's chief editor.
The law firm is representing some of the plaintiffs in legal action against the Japanese government.
Qi Zugan, 86, who was carried off to a coal mine in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1944 and returned to China in 1945, said the book is a record of the hardships faced by the slave laborers and a textbook for younger generations.
"I will never give up the fight for compensation and an apology from the Japanese mining company," said Qi, who went to Japan last year for a hearing on a 15 million yen (US$133,500) lawsuit he filed with four other laborers. "Another plaintiff will fly to Japan later this year for the case."
Shanghai explorer Wang Longxiang marked the day in his own way. He finished a four-month adventure by motorcycle covering 20 provinces and autonomous regions and more than 260 major battlefields and historic spots related to the fighting.
Also yesterday, The Radio Shanghai and Shanghai Archives held a symposium in which it called on audience members to "remember the past and look forward to the future."
Lan Ying, an 80-year-old former soldier, was among those attending. "I grew up during the war and I will never forget it," Lan said.
"Youngsters should never forget the Japanese atrocities and the hardships their ancestors experienced," he said.
In Beijing, more than 3,000 Buddhists gathered to burn joss sticks and prayer for world peace.
Following their prayers, Buddhists from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan held a memorial ceremony for the Chinese soldiers and civilians killed in the war.
"We are sincerely praying for the reunification of Taiwan with the motherland and the prosperity of the Chinese nation," said one of the representatives. "We pray for the replacement of wars with peace, and a world in which people may live happy lives."