CHINA DAILY Wednesday, August 26, 2015 CHINA 5
WWII ANNIVERSARY ASTRONOMY Stone rollers tell story of sacrifice
Hundreds of thousands toiled day and night before we used a stone roller toflattenthenewsurface.The to construct four air bases for US military process was repeated three or four times before the final By HUANG ZHILING mobilized 500,000 people surface was called a runway,” in Dayi, Sichuan near Chengdu to build four Liao said. huangzhiling@ military air bases in Xinjin, The US forces marveled at chinadaily.com.cn Qionglai, Guanghan and how Chinese workers relied Pengshan counties from late on their hands and stone roll Visitors to the Jianchuan 1943 to May 1944. ers to finish four air bases Museum Cluster in Dayi “Men, women and teenag within six months. A veteran county in Sichuan province ers joined in the project. All wrote that the only modern show a keen interest in five of us worked day and night,” tool he found at the construc huge stone rollers on display Liu said. tion sites was an electric in the largest private muse Tobuild a runway, workers lamp because workers had to um in China. had to clear away soft topsoil race against time and Weighing from five to 15 and dig about 1.5 meters worked at night. metric tons, they have been below it until they reached Workers had heartbreak rated as firstclass cultural the hard soil. ing memories of stone rollers relics by the National crushing fellow workers to A worker examines links on the aperture spherical radio telescope in Guizhou province. XU QIFEI / GUIYANG EVENING NEWS Administration of Cultural death because so many peo Heritage, thanks to their 500,000 ple pulled them at the same An overview of the role during World War II. time, said Yu Xuntan, a writ 500meter aperture To Liu Chaoxu, the rollers people er in Chengdu. spherical radio meant a trip down memory Since labor was in short telescope. Still being worked to build air bases near lane to more than 70 years supply, Yu, a high school built, it will be the Chengdu for the US air force ago when around 500,000 student from Jintang coun world’s largest radio during World War II. people near Chengdu, the ty in Sichuan, worked at the telescope after it is capital of Sichuan, worked airstrip construction site in completed in day and night to build land “We covered the hard soil Guanghan with some 100 September 2016. ing strips for the United with cobblestones and filled fellow students for one ZENG JUN / CHINA DAILY States air force. the gap between the cobble week in 1944 when he was “In late 1943, when I was stones with broken cobble 13. 16, I walked for one day with stones and slurry,” said Liao By the end of 1944, 250 fellow villagers to Xinjin Nanshan, a 96yearold farm US planes, more than 100 of county to build a military air er in Dayi who joined in the which were B29 bombers, base for Americans for nearly construction of the air base had landed at the four air six months. There were no in Qionglai. bases near Chengdu. machines, and we used a roll After that, more than 100 Taking off from the four er to flatten the runway,”said workers worked together to bases, more than 70 B29 Liu, a farmer in Pixian coun pull a stone grinder to flatten bombers struck Yawata, a ty in Sichuan. the surface. steelproducing base in InI943,theAlliesdecidedto “It did not mean a runway Japan, in June 1944. Later, deploy B29 bombers in India wasfinishedwhenthesurface B29 bombers hit the Japa that would refuel near Cheng wasflattened.Wehadtocover nese mainland and Japa Key parts added to massive radio telescope du before bombing targets on the cobblestones on the sur neseoccupied areas in China the Japanese mainland. face and fill the gap between many times. By ZHAO XINYING good drainage. This meant the National Astronomical Toimplement the plan, the the cobblestones with broken During her visit on Mon and YANG JUN that rainwater would not gath Observatories. Nationalist government cobblestones and slurry again day to Dujiangyan, Sichuan, in Pingtang, Guizhou er to damage the reflecting Nan Rendong, chief scien Nell Calloway, director of the surface of the telescope. tist of the FAST Project and a Chennault Aviation and Mili The installation of reflectors It will certainly Additionally, radio interfer researcher with the observato tary Museum in Louisiana in on the world’s largest radio tel ence from the surrounding ries, said FAST will have an the US, said: “Without the escope has begun, marking revolutionize oth area is low, since there is only extraordinary impact on airports, the war might have the start of a final key stage of one town within a radius of 25 astronomy. been different, for Japan had the telescope’s construction. er areas of the nat kilometers, Zhu said. “It will certainly revolution so many warplanes. In fact, Located in a natural valley ural sciences.” In 2007, funding for the ize other areas of the natural the war might have been of Southwest China’s Guizhou project was approved by the sciences,”he said. lost.” province, the 500meter aper Nan Rendong, chief scientist of National Development and FAST will enable astrono Tan Jihe, president of the ture spherical radio telescope, the FAST Project and a research Reform Commission. Two mers to jumpstart many sci Sichuan Provincial Associa known as the FAST Project, er at the National Astronomical years later, the 65 residents of ence goals, such as the survey tion of History, added: had its first reflecting unit Observatories the valley, from 12 families, of natural hydrogen in distant “Because of the B29 bomb installed in early August. were moved to a town nearby. galaxies, the detection of faint ers, Japanese planes did not Wuchang Shipbuilding On March 25, 2011, con pulsars or listening for possi dare to bomb Sichuan arbi Industry Group, a company in struction of the project offi ble signals from other civiliza trarily.” Hubei province responsible cially kicked off, with a tions, Nan added. Chengdu underwent 31 for installing the reflectors, planned completion date in “Chinese scientists have bombing attacks, from 1938 said the reflector surface, with 1.2 2016. made numerous contribu to 1944. The dead and a diameter of 500 meters, con tions in mathematics, com A teenager carries materials used for building a military injured numbered 5,337, sists of 4,450 reflecting units. billion yuan Leading position puter sciences and particle airstrip near Chengdu for the US air force during World War II. according to the Chengdu About 20 units can be Li, the scientist, said the tel physics in past years under Amount of funding for the PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Civil Air Defense Office. installed a day, and the instal escope, once completed, will impoverished conditions. telescope project when lation is due to be completed hold a leading position for Now, with the most advanced construction began in 2011 by March next year. two or three decades world facility supported by the gov FAST is a key national wide and will be an open sci ernment, a giant step forward project and received funding entific research platform. “We should be made,” Li said. Builder honors wartime dead of 1.2 billion yuan ($190 mil welcome scientists from lion) when construction around the world to come,” he Zeng Jun in Guiyang and By LIU MINGTAI soldier who committed sui began in 2011. said. Xinhua contributed to this and DING LUYANG cide as a protest against his Zhang Haiyan, deputy Future research through the story. in Yanbian, Jilin country’s invasion of China director of the FAST Project’s telescope will be conducted on and gave Chinese soldiers general office, said the tele pulsars, galaxies, dark matter Contact the writers at yang After 10 years of laborious 100,000 rounds of ammuni scope will take the place of the and cosmology, according to [email protected] effort,JinChunxiehasbuilt77 tion. 305meterdiameter Arecibo monuments to Chinese, Japa The monument and a pri Observatory in Puerto Rico as nese and Soviet troops who mary school named after the the largest of its kind in the died in Yanbian, Jilin prov Japanese soldier are listed as world. ince, during World War II. provinciallevel relics protec The sensitivity of the tele Jin, 68, was born into a tion sites. scope will be more than 10 poor family of the Korean In August 1945, about times stronger than that of a ethnic group in the north Jin Chunxie 2,100 soldiers from the Soviet 100meter telescope near eastern Chinese city. He Union lost their lives in a six Bonn, Germany, Zhang said. worked as a teacher, soldier day battle against the Japa Scientists believe more discov and factory worker before cheapest food and staying in nese Kwantung army. The eries and breakthroughs are becoming a civil servant in the cheapest hotels. He man people of Wangqing county expected after construction is Wangqing county, Yanbian. aged to raise more than 13 buried 55 soldiers who died completed in September 2016. Over the years, he learned million yuan ($2 million) to in the county on a hillside. that at least 105 battles took build the monuments. In 2009, Jin erected a mon Site selection place in the county, leaving To save the money raised ument for the 55 soldiers, Construction of the tele more than 175 ruins and from many companies and whose names remain scope was first proposed by cemeteries holding 634 war government departments, unknown, and built a ceme astronomers from 10 coun dead. Jin designed the monuments tery for them. tries, including China, in 1993. “But most of the battles himself and took part in the “Monuments have souls,” A year later, astronomers and ruins have been forgot construction work. Jin said. “They send our made several siteselection ten, which breaks my heart,” He visited a stone quarry respects to the martyrs, and trips to southwest China, ana Jin said. “My parents told hundreds of kilometers from tell our children how impor lyzing 400 natural basins. me many miserable stories his home more than 100 tant peace is.” One in Pingtang county, of how civilians suffered times over 10 years to choose Jin has also financed many Guizhou province, was finally during the War of Resist marble. students in their studies over chosen for its almostperfect ance Against Japanese In those years, he was bit the past 10 years. spherical landform, which Aggression (193745) since I ten by ticks and stung by “I’ll continue helping chil saved much effort in digging a was a child. I made up my bees. He slept in a forklift on dren in need for the rest of hollow for the telescope, said mind to do something for chilly winter nights. He has my life and teach them how Li Di, a scientist at the Nation those people and those who completed 40 books com hard it is to achieve peace,”he al Astronomical Observatories saved them. prising more than 1 million said. of the Chinese Academy of Sci “The names of the martyrs words to record the stories of ences. should be made known, and the heroes. Cang Wei contributed to this Zhu Boqin, an engineer who their deeds remembered.” Insisting that all of them, story. took part in the site survey To collect information regardless of their nationali more than 20 years ago, said about the heroes, Jin traveled ty, should be remembered Contact the writers at the valley in Guizhou was also to many cities around the with dignity, Jin built a mar liumingtai@ chosen for its karst formation country, always eating the ble monument to a Japanese chinadaily.com.cn of soluble rocks that ensures