Video accounts of Nanjing Massacre survivors donated to memorial hall

NANJING — Japanese educator Matsuoka Tamaki donated hundreds of videotapes of survivors' accounts to the Nanjing Massacre memorial hall Wednesday, in an effort to raise awareness of atrocities during WWII.

On Dec 13, 1937, Japanese invaders captured Nanjing, then China's capital, and started six weeks of mass killings, rape and pillage that resulted in the deaths of about 300,000 Chinese.

The videotapes document interviews Matsuoka conducted with more than 300 survivors of the massacre from 1998 to 2006, as well as testimonies some gave at hearings in Japan.

"The tapes are of immense historical value, as the survivors are now in their twilight years and number less than 100," said Zhang Jianjun, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.