Eternal Brilliance
Among those witnesses of the passed history in Quzhou Archive，a copper plaque lied there all in peace. Two big Chinese characters "Duo Xie" dominate the glinting surface of the plaque. Around the characters, there're 44 English names.
This plaque was given to Quzhou Government by Brian Moon, an aviational artist from Red Wing, who was sent to China by General Doolittle in 1990.The names around the characters, are the autographies of the survivors of the Doolittle Raiders.
Time, flows back to seventy-five years ago...
It was an era of blood and dust, it was also an era of the battle between justice and evil. Millions of people built the tower of freedom and peace with their corpses. On December 7th,1941, Japanese launched the Surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which shocked the Americans drastically. With people's burning wrath, eventually, America declared war on Japan. At the beginning of the war, fortune failed to befall them and the Americans were defeated in many battles in the Pacific War.
For the sake of lifting the blowed morale, Franklin Roosevelt, the President of the US, commanded the American Army to make a plan of revenge. The American Army's plan is to bomb Japan's mainland all of a sudden and land the bombers at the airports in Quzhou, Yushan and Lishui. Consequently, people in Quzhou made a lot of preparations to greet them.
Nevertheless, plans couldn't keep pace with changes. The American aircraft carriers were discovered by a Japanese ship. Out of safety, the commander made a decision to launch the planes in advance. In consequence of the ignorance of the sudden change, Chinese soldiers in the airport didn't light the guide light. When the planes flew by, people thought they were Japanese bombers and the whole city were hid behind of the shield of darkness. The lack of gas and the danger of being caught by the enemies left them no choice but to abandon the aircrafts and entrust their everything including lives to their allied force and Chinese civilians.
Charles Ozark, navigator of the No.3 machine, landed in a mountain in Changtai Town of Jiangshan. During his landing, his left leg was seriously injured. In excruciating pain, Ozark stumbled down the mountain, trying to find a way out. Fortunately, he was found by some villagers and was taken to a villager's house . The villagers picked some herbs and helped him bind up the wound . They made noodles for him, but he ate nothing except eggs. Never in his whole life had he seen such kind of stuff that was eatable! Initially, they have difficulties in communicating and can't understand each other. Luckily, a villager happened to have a little knowledge of English and managed to find out that he was an American soldier. Some days later, when Ozark was vaguely recovered , they used a sedan chair to carry him to the town , which was about eight-hour walk away from the village.
Besides Ozark , many other American soldiers' lives were saved by the local kind-hearted villagers . Although some may be regarded as odd creatures at first , they were all well treated and were offered with the most "extravagant" food such as milk and beef . Those who didn't have such fortune and died were also buried formally and stately. After the reunion of the survivors, they were taken to Chongqing, which was the capital of China at that time, and then went back to America .
The haughty Japanese were deplorably exasperated. Their furious rage and their cognizance of the menace of military installations in Zhejiang and Jiangxi Province precipitated the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign. Quzhou was occupied , and the haze of holocaust hung over the whole city. The transport lines were utterly destroyed, and those who once helped the Americans were cruelly slain. Bacteria weapons, from which many innocent civilians' bobies are still suffered, were used in the war. More than 250 thousand people lost their lives during the three dark months.
Needless to say, the Chinese civilians made tremendous contributions for the world's peace and had formed a paramount force against Japanese's aggression.
Although decades of years have passed, the remembrance of the legendary story remains deeply in both Chinese and Americans' heart. In 1992, 50th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, with the presence of five Chinese who saved the American soldiers, was held in America. The five Chinese were awarded the American "Honorary Citizen" and "Heroes of Human Services", and were met warmly by Cheney, the Defence Minister of America at that time, in the Pentagon. In 1993, bringing the hope of building up a stronger connection between Red Wing and Quzhou, Mr. Moon visited Quzhou again. In 1994, Quzhou and Red Wing formally established friendly relations, and from then on, communications in education, culture and economic have been deepened day by day. Student exchanges and academic communications are frequent. The friendship between the two cities shortens the distance between the two coasts of the Pacific Ocean. Other anniversaries of the action were held in 2012 and 2013 in America. The deep friendship forged decades of years ago continues to exist.
Nowadays, free from the threat of war, we live in a world under a peaceful sun. Nonetheless, peace doesn't come easily. It requires sacrifice, and it's also delicate. The believers of peace should cooperate and unite, only then can we make the world a paradise. People in both Quzhou and Red Wing tightly hold the creed of peace, pass down the spirit of love from generation to generation. Back to the archive, what the plaque's keeping reflecting, is not only simple light, but also the brilliance of humanity. I believe, if every single one keeps standing and fighting, the brilliance will sparkle for centuries, for eons，even for eternity!
Class 4, Senior 2 Zhu Zhouhang