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Anniversary 87; Nanjing Massacre Victims’ Families Centre Stage

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With its traditional ceremonial solemnity, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders’ annual recognition of the ransacking of Nanjing in 1937 took place today. But more clouds now loom; that soon no one will be here to remember it.

Traffic came to a halt in downtown Xinjiekou and elsewhere in Nanjing at 10:01 this morning, 13 December, 2024, as air-raid sirens wailed citywide, reminding of the events that began to unfold in our City some 87 years ago. 

It’s a tradition born in 2014 and passed by the Standing Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress; several thousand members of the armed forces, medical profession, children, officials, specially-invited guests and of course, survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, all gathering in the Memorial Hall for a ceremony carefully choreographed with military precision that lasts a mere half hour.

However, those survivors’ numbers continue to dwindle; just 32 officially recognised as such now remain. Hence, this year has also become the year in which the role played by those survivors’ descendants is acknowledged. They will now be the ones to pass on the memories and tell the truth as to the atrocities of 1937.

Those families of the victims were therefore in the spotlight when an annual commemoration for victims’ families was enshrined on 1 December, as they paid tribute to their loved ones in front of the “wailing wall” outside the Memorial Hall.

Among those in attendance was Chang Xiaomei. His father, Chang Zhiqiang, experienced the Nanjing Massacre by witnessing six family members tortured and killed.

As Global Times has reported, Xiaomei said his father used to regard the Memorial Hall as his “second home”, on account the names of those he missed are inscribed on a wall therein.

Also among the mourners was survivor Xia Shuqin, who has for many years been a visible figure at events related to the Nanjing Massacre. Now 95, Xia remembers her mother and 1 year old sister who were pulled from their hiding beneath a table to be slaughtered. In defiance, she said, “I will come as long as my health permits. It’s hard not to be here”.

Zhou Feng is Curator of the Memorial Hall. “Inheritors are the main force in passing on historical memory, and they have a deeper understanding of the mission and various ways of doing it”, said Zhou in reference to the family members upon whose shoulders this responsibility now lies. 

Xiaomei has even gone to the lengths of documenting his father’s life in a book. Revealing the impact the Nanjing Massacre had upon him, the work has been published in Chinese, English and Japanese. 

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OUTRAGEOUS!

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