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Officials mark the occasion in Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hongkongers find own ways to remember Rape of Nanking

Veterans, government officials and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong found their own ways to mark the 77th anniversary of the rape of Nanking, when Beijing held its first official national memorial day.

Veterans, government officials and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong found their own ways to mark the 77th anniversary of the rape of Nanking yesterday, when Beijing held its first official national memorial day.

The government took its cue from Beijing, with Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and his ministers paying their respects at the city's first official memorial ceremony.

Also present for the ceremony at the Museum of Coastal Defence were former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li and Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing.

Leung laid a wreath and the guests observed a two-minute silence for those who died in the 1937 massacre.

Also in attendance were about 50 veterans of the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Brigade, a guerilla force under the Communist party that fought the Japanese occupiers in the city. There were also about a dozen Chinese veterans of the British military.

"It is an honour for us. Before the handover, the colonial government never recognised our role in the war to defend Hong Kong," said Steven Wong Muk-lin, 82, who was an underground messenger for the Communist brigade at the age of just 10.

Keung Pak-chung, 68, a lieutenant colonel in the pre-handover Royal Hong Kong Regiment, said the memorial had special meaning as both Nanking, now known as Nanjing , and Hong Kong suffered under the Japanese.

"It should have been done earlier. I don't know why the SAR government waited until now," he said.

A group of 15 people, organised by the Beijing-loyalist Voice of Loving Hong Kong, went to the museum to see a photo exhibition on the massacre and take photographs with a large national flag.

While all 70 lawmakers had been invited, only about 10, all Beijing loyalists, turned up.

Some pan-democrats were marking the anniversary as they have done in previous years - by pressing China's claim to the disputed Diaoyu Islands.

A dozen protesters, including members of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, marched to the Japanese consulate and burned Japanese flags to express anger at Tokyo's refusal to admit historical wrongs.

They also staged a photo exhibition on busy East Point Road in Causeway Bay.

"The SAR government was too late to start commemorating," said committee chairman Lo Chau.

"I think they are doing this now just to follow the state memorial ceremony."

He pointed out that the city's own Sino-Japanese War Victory Day holiday had been scrapped. The holiday was replaced in 1998, when Tung was Hong Kong's chief executive.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Hong Kong finds own ways to remember past horrors
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