Nanjing Massacre survivor dies, leaving only 31 registered survivors

NANJING -- Ai Yiying, who survived the Nanjing Massacre, passed away on Thursday at the age of 97, bringing the number of living registered survivors to 31, said the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

The Nanjing Massacre refers to when Japanese troops captured the then Chinese capital on Dec 13, 1937. Over six weeks, they killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in one of the most barbaric episodes of World War II.

As the Nanjing Massacre unfolded, nine-year-old Ai's world was shattered when her father, uncle and cousin were seized from a makeshift shelter of a cowshed and executed by Japanese soldiers at the entrance of their village. Ai, along with her younger siblings and mother, fled to a refugee camp, narrowly escaping death.

"I remember pulling on my father's sleeve, asking when he would return," Ai once recalled with deep sorrow. "He told me he would be back soon. But that was the last time I saw him."

In 2014, the survivor who lost six family members during the massacre traveled to Japan, visiting Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo, where she participated in testimony events for survivors of the Nanjing Massacre.

There, she shared her harrowing experiences, recounting the brutal acts of the Japanese soldiers in China. "We must not forget the suffering we endured in the past," Ai said.

In 2022, Ai's son was recognized as an "inheritor of historical memories regarding the Nanjing Massacre".

The Chinese government has preserved the survivors' testimonies, recorded in both written and video transcripts. The documents on the massacre were listed by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Register in 2015.