NANJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) — The individuals of Nanjing noticed a second of silence, and sirens have been heard throughout the town as China held a memorial ceremony on Wednesday to mourn the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre.
Despite the winter chill, 1000’s of individuals, wearing darkish apparel, attended the tenth nationwide memorial ceremony for the victims in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, with white flowers pinned to their chests.
China’s nationwide flag was flown at half-mast in entrance of the group, which included bloodbath survivors, native college students and international buddies.
At 10:01 a.m., sirens started to blare. Drivers within the downtown space stopped their vehicles and honked, whereas pedestrians paused for a second of silence in remembrance of the victims.
More than 80 younger individuals learn aloud a declaration of peace, and citizen representatives struck the Bell of Peace. White doves, symbolizing hope for peace, have been launched to fly over the sq. of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
In 2014, China’s high legislature designated Dec. 13 because the nationwide memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre, which passed off when Japanese troops captured the town on Dec. 13, 1937. The Japanese invaders brutally killed roughly 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed troopers in over six weeks, marking some of the barbaric episodes of World War II.
As of this 12 months, the variety of registered Nanjing Massacre survivors has dwindled to simply 38.
The Chinese authorities has preserved the survivors’ testimonies, recorded in written paperwork and video footage. These information of the bloodbath have been listed by UNESCO within the Memory of the World Register in 2015.
Historical supplies have been progressively collected as new proof of warfare crimes associated to the bloodbath. More than 1,100 gadgets, together with 125 American newspapers comparable to The New York Times which reported the atrocity, have been donated to the memorial corridor this 12 months.
Since its inauguration in 1985, the memorial corridor has acquired a group of about 193,000 gadgets together with pictures, artifacts and video footage of the tragedy.
According to Zhou Feng, curator of the memorial corridor, they’re attempting to gather extra typical historic supplies globally and revive the collections via digital strategies to higher present instructional providers for the general public.
A dozen new publications on the Nanjing Massacre have been launched on Dec. 6, amongst which, a novel named Ningsheng Ningsheng, written by an English trainer and screenwriter from Nanjing, depicts the completely different experiences of Ningsheng, two namesake youngsters of the identical age, in 1937 and 2017.
“I want to use the story to help more children understand and remember this part of the history, so they can better cherish the present world,” mentioned Yang Xiaoyan, writer of the novel.
“The Nanjing Massacre is not just a certain history in the books, but a history that belongs to every Chinese. The suffering should not be forgotten,” Zhou mentioned.
Liu Minsheng, a survivor of the bloodbath, was solely three years outdated when he skilled the holocaust. “A Japanese soldier snarled at me with a bayonet in his hand and stabbed me in the leg. I always remember that day,” the 89-year-old survivor mentioned.
Dozens of descendants of Nanjing Massacre survivors, who have been acknowledged as China’s inheritors of the historic reminiscence, additionally attended the memorial ceremony on Wednesday.
“When my parents were alive, they always told me to pass on the historical truth to our future generations. And we have the responsibility to spread the history to the world,” mentioned Cao Yuli, one of many inheritors.
“At the same time, we hope for peace and happiness all over the world,” Cao added.