BEIJING, June 2: With Hong Kong's reunification less than a month away, China has stepped up measures to promote patriotism among people by marking sites of "national shame" and publishing an "Atlas of Shame".

The municipal government of Beijing last week unveiled eight sites of `national shame' to commemorate atrocities committed by Japanese troops during their occupation in the 1930s and 40s.

Each site is connected with the period of the war of resistance against Japanese aggression (1937-1945) when Beijing, then named Beiping, was under Japanese occupation.

Seven of the sites witnessed the slaughter of Chinese people and resistance fighters by Japanese troops through various atrocities such as being fed to wolfhounds and live burials.

The other site, the only one in downtown Beijing, is in Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) park, which was the headquarters of a Japanese germ warfare unit. The Temple of Heaven is now a popular tourist attraction.

At present, Beijing has over 30 historical sites that record Japanese wartime atrocities and the eight sites marked last week were also listed recently among the municipality's first group of `bases for education on patriotism' among Beijing residents.

Meanwhile, China has also published an `Atlas of Shame' charting in graphic detail its humiliation at the hands of colonial powers over the past century.The `Atlas of Shame' consists of nearly 100 maps with detailed explanations, tables and pictures to portray the humiliation and invasions colonial powers inflicted on China since the first `Opium War' in 1840. Divided into five parts, the atlas follows the sequence of historical events like western powers using their battleships and guns to force the government of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) to cede territory and pay indemnities, dumping opium into China; world powers intensifying their invasion of China; Japan's launching of the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895; looting of China's rights and resources by imperialists and launching of the war of aggression against China (1937-1945) by Japanese imperialists.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.