Relics of Nanjing Massacre undercut denials

The Memorial Hall for the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders has collected 193,000 sets of cultural relics that prove, by their simple existence, the undeniable reality of the Nanjing Massacre, which apologists continue to downplay on the anniversary of the events.

Japanese invaders captured Nanjing on Dec 13, 1937, and killed more than 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers over a six-week period — facts supported by overwhelming evidence.

The Memorial Hall said it has added 860 relics to its collections since the establishment in 2014 of the first National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

While the relics stand as indisputable historical truth, survivors of the massacre, who have stepped out over the years to testify about what they experienced, are aging and dying.

As of early December, only 38 survivors were still alive. However, efforts to uphold history and inherit the memory of the Japanese atrocities are ongoing.

In 2014, the memorial hall began registering the descendants of the deceased victims. Twenty-three people have been certified as inheritors of the historical memory of the Nanjing Massacre since August last year.