A move to commemorate Japan's past aggression to Chinese is gaining ground

WHEN he was a teenager, Law Sau-chun put his life on the line resisting the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. He and other young natives of the New Territories did not hesitate to tip off secret underground guerillas about the movements of Japanese soldiers or carry out grenade attacks on their enemy.

The 71-year-old remembers well the risks and severe hardships he and others went through during the 44-month occupation. Like others, his wish is that those wartime days will never fade from people's memories.

Despite more than half a century passing since the end of World War II, people like him feel the repercussions are far from over.

Compensation for elderly women forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese army and demands for a formal apology from the Japanese Government still hang in the air.

And lately, there is a new issue - the building of a museum detailing the historical facts surrounding Japan's aggression against China and Hong Kong between 1937 and 1945.

The 60 members comprising the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands favour the museum idea, as do at least 20 legislators and municipal councillors, and war veterans such as Mr Law and their children.

'All of my six children heard from me about my past involvement with the guerillas. I started to talk about the war days when the whole family sat together,' he explains at his three-storey ancestral home at Nam Chung, near Sha Tau Kok.