Duan Shengkui says, a nation without awareness of its history and struggle is dangerous. He spent half of his life doing this to alert every citizen.[Photo by Liu Xiangrui/China Daily]

From both his father and his grandfather, Duan learned about the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese army.

"I heard a lot of tragic stories about the villagers being brutally treated by the aggressors," says Duan, explaining that, in the early 1940s, more than 200 people from the local area were killed by Japanese troops after one of their officers was shot dead by the guerrillas.

"It has always been my dream to ensure that more people know about the crimes committed by the Japanese aggressors in western Yunnan and the unwavering resistance of the Chinese people."

While in high school, Duan was inspired by magazine articles about hobbies such as stamp collecting and decided that he would start collecting items related to the War of Resistance. Starting with the "game props" he already had, he began searching for all kinds of war relics.

At first, he exchanged items he wanted, while some people offered him artifacts for free, but eventually he started to spend money on his growing collection.

It was when Duan was in college that he started to research history behind items in his collection and was surprised to discover that his hometown's part in the War of Resistance was not as widely known or as frequently recorded in historical materials as events that took place elsewhere.