Chapter 2

The first foreign historical movie I saw is “General Patton”. A line of this movie impressed me deeply—Thirty years from now, you are sitting on your fireside with a grandson on your knee, and he asks you “What did you do in the great World War Ⅱ?”You will not have to say “Well, I shoveled shits in Louisiana.”I didn’t know that my grandpa had struggled and strived in that Great War until I was a primary school student.I would never forget that day when I became a member of the Red Scarf—Young Pioneers. I bounced into my grandpa’s garden, brimming with happiness. He was watering the flowers there. His white hair was dyed golden in the midday sunshine. He put aside the water pot and sat down on a wooden bench. He took my schoolbag off and arranged my clothes. I could tell that he was more careful and attentive when he was arranging my new red scarf.“Congratulations! New young pioneer!” he said to me smiling, “I am proud of you!”“Oh, grandpa! You owe me an award. What gift are you going to give me?”“Ok, what gift do you want?”“Uh…” I thought for a while, “I wonder what is in your locked drawer. Could you show that to me? It must be the most interesting and fantastic thing of your life.”“That’s right. A really magnificent and significant thing to me. If you promise to turn back and close your eyes, I will show it to you.”“Oh, I promise and pledge that!”Immediately I turned back and shut my eyes. I could hear that his key was opening a paradise for me. My eager heart almost beat to my throat. Every passing second was suffering for me and I felt that it was one thousand years before my grandpa told me to turn back again.In his palm, there was a red metal five-pointed star with some rust spots on it. Although age had faded its brightness, I could tell that it had been preserved very well.“Where did you get it, grander?” I asked curiously.“About fifty years ago, a greatest misery befell in our motherland. The Japanese Empire waged an aggressive war totally towards our nation. Within a few months, half of territory was lost. My hometown was seized by those devils. They did all evils there. One of my cousins was bayoneted to death by them.”“Where were the policemen? Where were the soldiers?” I couldn’t believe my ears.“The corrupted government didn’t organize any effective resistance against the enemy. The enemy drove straight into our hinterland. Those civilians who didn’t escape in time were massacred.”“Oh, grandpa! We had to do something. What happened then? What did you do in that Great War?“In 1943, one night I was about to go to bed when one of my laborer friends came to my house. He said that a resistance army was recruiting and he wanted me to join the army with him. That day was a turning point in my life. I started my career as a soldier.”“Terrific! Did you kick them on their asses?” I said excitedly.“It was not easy to make them surrender although we gain the victory. I lost one of my close comrades in the war.It was a dark night in the late winter. He was sending messages through the battle line under tremendously roaring artillery fire. He was shot and died in the battlefield with a diary in his chest pocket. In one page of the diary, he wrote—for the country and for the people, I will struggle; I will strive; I will stride; I will sacrifice; I will not surrender, now or ever!” Grandpa’s voice was trembling when he recalled his sincerest comrade.Tears flooded my eyes before I came to my consciousness. I was absolutely absorbed in my grandpa’s story.That day is a turning point in the life. Not only because I became a Young Pioneer but also there was a trumpet in my heart summoning me.I was summoned by virtue not evil.I was summoned by myself not others.I was summoned to struggle, to strive, to stride, to sacrifice, not to surrender, now or ever.