NANJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) — In a solemn show of remembrance, the folks of Nanjing noticed a second of silence as sirens resonated all through the town on Friday, marking China’s nationwide memorial ceremony to mourn the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre.
Despite the winter chill, hundreds of individuals clad in darkish apparel gathered in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, with white flowers pinned to their chests, to partake within the ceremony.
China’s nationwide flag was flown at half-mast in entrance of the gang that included survivors of the bloodbath, native college students and worldwide buddies.
At 10:01 a.m., sirens started to blare. Drivers within the downtown space stopped their automobiles, honking in unison, whereas pedestrians paused to watch a second of silence in reminiscence of the victims.
Over 80 younger folks recited a declaration of peace, and citizen representatives struck the Bell of Peace. In a poignant image of hope, white doves had been launched, hovering over the sq. of the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the memorial ceremony and delivered a speech.
He mentioned the memorial ceremony expressed the Chinese folks’s noble want to steadfastly pursue peaceable growth and demonstrated their agency stance on remembering historical past, cherishing peace and forging forward for a brighter future.
The Nanjing Massacre occurred when Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital on Dec. 13, 1937. Over the course of six weeks, they proceeded to kill roughly 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed troopers in one of the barbaric episodes of World War II.
During the atrocity, then-three-year-old Liu Minsheng misplaced his father and was stabbed within the leg by a Japanese soldier. The scar stays as a everlasting reminder to this present day.
“I hope future generations will always remember this history and cherish the peaceful life we enjoy today,” mentioned Liu, now 90 years previous, on the ceremony.
A decade in the past, China’s prime legislature designated Dec. 13 because the nationwide memorial day for the victims of the atrocities.
Since final 12 months’s nationwide memorial day, six survivors of the bloodbath have handed away, leaving solely 32 registered survivors nonetheless alive right this moment.
“There are fewer and fewer survivors who can tell the story,” mentioned Chang Xiaomei, who was granted the official standing of heir of historic reminiscences of the Nanjing Massacre in 2022.
Her father Chang Zhiqiang, a Nanjing bloodbath witness, handed away in December 2022. Chang Xiaomei started documenting the elder Chang’s life in 2017 to share the affect the atrocity had had on him. Three years later, she revealed a e-book that was later translated into Japanese and English.
The Chinese authorities has preserved the testimonies of those survivors by way of written paperwork and video recordings. In 2015, these data had been inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, making certain that this harrowing chapter of historical past is remembered by future generations.
“We must help generations of people to remember that period of history, remember our suffering and inspire us to move forward on the road ahead,” Chang instructed Xinhua.
Similar commemorations had been additionally held elsewhere throughout China.
At the 9.18 Historical Museum in Shenyang, capital of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, members held candles as they remembered the victims.
Japan invaded northeast China in September 1931, adopted by a full-scale invasion that began on July 7, 1937. Around 35 million Chinese troopers and civilians had been killed or injured throughout the Japanese occupation, which continued till 1945.
At the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, folks laid wreaths for the martyrs and victims within the warfare.
“We are remembering the past so as to stay away from the war,” mentioned Wang Yufeng, deputy director of the memorial corridor.
“It is important to remember history. Otherwise, it will keep repeating, as we have seen and still see today,” mentioned Chris Magee, the grandson of John Magee, an American missionary who covertly recorded 105 minutes of footage documenting the barbarity of Japanese invaders in Nanjing. This footage is regarded as the one movie report of the bloodbath.
Explaining why it stays essential to recollect a bloodbath that occurred greater than 80 years in the past, Marcin Tomasz Damek, a Polish pupil learning Chinese historical past in Nanjing, mentioned, “For communities, it’s a way to heal trauma. For historians, it’s about knowing better the past. For educators, it’s an essential lesson to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies.”