Scenes from the edges of parade

Thank you for giving us our todays

CHINA DAILY Ravi Shankar EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF CHINA DAILY OVERSEAS EDITIONS

I am a nocturnal person. Years of working in newspapers that are published past midnight mean I rarely go to bed till well past that time.

So my delight was mixed with some trepidation when I had the privilege of being invited to the Sept 3 parade. The schedule went against my body clock. Wake-up call at 4 am, breakfast at 5 am, board bus to Tian'anmen Square at 6 am and be seated by 8 am after security checks.

But there are days when waking up early is more than worth it.

Pomp and pageantry. Sound and spectacle. What were cliches till Thursday turned into a spectacular live show from my vantage point bang opposite the Tian'anmen Rostrum.

Those magnificent young men in planes and tanks or marching in perfect step－including about 1,000 foreign troops from 17 countries－held us in thrall for two hours.

The veterans, living, breathing heroes, most of whom saw comrades fall in war, received the biggest applause when they led the march.

Yes, this was a celebration－but also a somber moment of reflection.

Yes, there were murmurs of political motives behind the parade in some quarters－the event has not been celebrated in China on such a scale－but the victims deserve the remembrance and gratitude; the veterans their day under an early-autumn sun.

In the run-up to the parade, I picked up where I left off with Rana Mitter's Forgotten Ally: China's War with Japan, 1937-1945, described as "the epic, untold story of China's devastating eight-year war of resistance against Japan".

If there was any doubt outside China about the tremendous sacrifices made, they would be dispelled by the book.

During the campaign in the Burma Theater in 1944, the Japanese were held off for the first time in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland－the fierce battles are reported to have taken many lives on both sides.

At the war cemetery in the state capital Kohima lies an epitaph to the mostly British and Indian soldiers:

When you go home,

Tell them of us and say.

For your tomorrow,

We gave our today.

On Thursday, I fully understood what it means and why the commemoration was needed.

The writer, a winner of the China Friendship Award, was among 50 invited to the parade by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.