Nanjing Massacre survivor dies at 91

Wan Xiuying, a 91-year-old survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, died Thursday night in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, according to the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

Wan has said in earlier interviews that Japanese soldiers caught many civilians from a refugee camp and lined them up in nine teams before shooting them with machine guns.

She said that her brother, then 19, took off his hat to Japanese soldiers one day when he passed by their lookout post, but the soldiers pulled out their swords and decapitated him.

Her elder sister, who was also at the scene, was terrified and hid in a nearby woodpile.

The number of survivors has dropped to 82, according to the memorial hall.

On Dec 13, 1937, the Nanjing Massacre took place when Japanese troops captured China's then capital city. They killed 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers over six weeks.