by Xinhua Writer Nie Xiaoyang
MANILA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- A recently found letter from 1986 has brought new attention to the Yu family, whose defiance during World War II made them symbols of the Filipino-Chinese resistance against Japanese occupation.
The handwritten note, sent by Yu Changgeng (in Mandarin pinyin), then editor-in-chief of the Chinese Commercial News, a Chinese-language newspaper in the Philippines, outlined a subscription contract with Xinhua's Manila Bureau as the paper prepared to relaunch after years of suppression. His words reflected the resilience of a family that had paid the ultimate price in wartime.
The Yu family's story is inseparable from the history of overseas Chinese resistance against Japanese aggression. In 1919, Yu Changgeng's father, Yu Yitong, founded the Chinese Commercial News. When China's full-scale war of resistance against Japanese aggression broke out in 1937, Yu Yitong emerged as a leading figure in the Filipino-Chinese community.
As head of publicity for the Philippine Chinese Anti-Enemy Assistance Committee, he mobilized donations and supplies for China's resistance effort. The Filipino-Chinese contributions ranked among the highest in Southeast Asia.
Yu Yitong also dispatched correspondents to China to report the war and expose Japanese atrocities. Under his leadership, the Chinese Commercial News became an influential platform rallying overseas Chinese support for resistance.
When Japanese forces occupied Manila in 1942, the paper -- then the largest Chinese-language daily in the Philippines -- chose to suspend publication rather than be forced to be a Japanese propaganda tool. Refusing repeated orders to resume under occupation, Yu Yitong and 11 other community leaders were executed on April 15, 1942.
Wartime records estimate that tens of thousands of Filipino-Chinese perished during the war. Today, a memorial stands in Manila's Chinese Cemetery in their honor.
Three years later, on the anniversary of his father's death, Yu Changgeng and his brother revived the paper, declaring that the Japanese could kill their father, but not his newspaper.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the newspaper stuck to a neutral and objective stance in covering developments in the New China. That position drew repeated crackdowns. In 1962, the Yu brothers were jailed for eight months. In 1970, they were again arrested and deported from the Philippines, forcing the paper to cease publication.
It was not until 1986, amid political change, that the Yus returned to Manila and relaunched Chinese Commercial News, restoring a voice that had survived war, exile, and censorship.
The 1986 letter from Yu Changgeng to Xinhua remains a tangible reminder of that turbulent journey. Preserved in archives, it symbolizes the family's resilience and the broader struggle of the Filipino-Chinese community during wartime.
As the world reflects on the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the Yu family's story highlights not only sacrifice but also the enduring responsibility to safeguard peace.
The tragedies of war remind us that peace must be defended by every generation, as the memory of the Yu family's wartime sacrifice urges us never to take it for granted. ■
