People bid farewell to legendary Chinese patriot
A man lays flowers at Gao Wenbin's tomb on Friday.
People bid farewell to Gao Wenbin, a member of the Chinese delegation at the Tokyo Trial, at Fushouyuan Cemetery in Qingpu District on Friday, as his urn was buried at the cemetery on the 76th anniversary of the victory in China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
Gao was the last survivor of the 17-strong delegation of Chinese judges and prosecutors who represented China at the trials of Japanese war criminals at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The trials, known as the Tokyo Trial, were held from May 3, 1946, to November 12, 1948.
Gao was born in 1922 in Shanghai and died on September 7 last year.
As the trials of Japanese war criminals used Anglo-American law and the official languages were English and Japanese, the Chinese delegation needed assistants and translators adept at both law and English. Having learned Anglo-American law at Soochow University, Gao was selected.
The camera used by Gao is on display at the Shanghai Humanism Memorial Museum inside Fushouyuan Cemetery.
Attendees mourned revolutionary heroes who sacrificed themselves in the war during a commemoration event at the cemetery, and laid flowers at the Tokyo Trial monument located there.
The monument features bronze statues of judges and prosecutors who represented China at the trials. The names of the 17-strong delegation are carved on the monument.
In 2007, Gao attended the unveiling ceremony of the monument when he was 85.
He was laid to rest in a flower bed beside the monument.
Gao Lan (right), Gao's daughter, donates the camera to the Shanghai Humanism Memorial Museum.
A dictionary Gao co-compiled is on display at the Shanghai Humanism Memorial Museum inside Fushouyuan Cemetery.
Attendees such as Jiang Yong, Party secretary of Soochow University, Yan Dalong, deputy Party secretary of Shanghai Maritime University, and Xiang Longwan, whose father Xiang Zhejun was the chief China prosecutor at the Tokyo Trial, recalled the life of Gao and his patriotic spirit.
A camera Gao used for more than half a century, including at the Tokyo Trial, and a dictionary he co-compiled are now part of the collection at the Shanghai Humanism Memorial Museum inside the cemetery.
