A past revisited

MANILA, Philippines - Memories bring us back to the past. But what good does recalling a horrible past bring? Answer:  It will  make us strive for peace all the time.

This, China’s Memory of Nanjing aims to achieve through an exhibit ongoing until Nov. 27 at Bahay Tsinoy, Kaisa-Angelo King Heritage Center in Intramuros, Manila. The display is a mini version of the Nanjing Memorial Hall in China which shows vintage photos and artifacts that tell how war victims suffered cruelty and hardship during the foreign invasion.

One Chinese was killed every 12 seconds. Some were beheaded or burned to death. Women and children were not even spared. That was in 1937, when Japanese forces invaded Nanjing, China. Eight years later, World War II saw Filipinos suffering the same fate.

Thus, it is only fitting that two nations show to today’s Chinese and Filipino generations that we share a common past. The Memory of Nanjing is part of the Exchange Exhibition arrangement with Philippine Veterans Bank’s (PVB) traveling WWII Exhibit titled The War of Our Fathers…A Tribute to Filipino Freedom Fighters. It has been on display at the Nanjing Memorial Hall since April.

“Our exhibit in Nanjing has seen by over 900,000 visitors already and it is still on display how Filipinos defended the country from foreign aggression,” PVB VP Mike Villa-Real shares.

Both exhibits are in partnership with the Veterans Federation of the Philippines, the UNESCO Cultural Committee with Carmen Padilla as chairman, Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran and the Bahay Tsinoy, Museum of Chinese in Philippine Life.

Organizers hope everyone will continuously work for peace as both exhibits remind people about the war victims’ extreme pain.

The exhibit was launched last Nov. 7 with Wang Wei, VP of the Nanjing International Cultural Association; Carmen Padilla; Teresita Ang See of Kaisa Heritage Center and Ricardo Balbido Jr., PVB president and CEO gracing the opening rites.