Liu Yuedong, 91, pictured during the early days of his service with the New Fourth Army. Photo by Wu Fang / for China Daily

Liu was wounded in August 1940, while helping to fight off an attack on Wujiang. "We were totally pinned down by enemy fire, and the roar of the shells seriously damaged my hearing in one ear," he said.

Liu is one of about 20,000 surviving Chinese veterans of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), according to voluntary veteran-care organizations.

According to Sun Mian, founder of New Weekly, a magazine in Guangdong province, who leads a group of volunteers devoted to caring for veterans, most of the former soldiers are now 90 or older, and almost all of them still carry scars, both mental and physical.

A student card from 1941 belonging to veteran Lu Ruiting, 95. Photo by Wu Fang / for China Daily