Japanese teacher donates Nanjing Massacre accounts to Memorial Hall

Retired Japanese teacher Matsuoka Tamaki donates her collection of tapes containing audio and video testimonies from survivors of the Nanjing Massacre to the Memorial Hall of the Victims, on April 4, 2018. Matsuoka Tamaki has been visiting Nanjing Massacre survivors in China since 1988 and documenting their accounts. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

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.

Retired Japanese teacher Matsuoka Tamaki donates her collection of tapes containing audio and video testimonies from survivors of the Nanjing Massacre to the Memorial Hall of the Victims, on April 4, 2018. Matsuoka Tamaki has been visiting Nanjing Massacre survivors in China since 1988 and documenting their accounts. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

"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.

That the interviews were conducted when survivors had better memories increases their value, Zhang said.

Matsuoka, who has made nearly 100 trips to Nanjing since 1988, made great efforts to gain the trust of the survivors.

"At first, the survivors were afraid to be interviewed by a Japanese. My interpreter had to repeatedly assured them that I am not 'a bad Japanese' before they began to trust me," Matsuoka recalled.

The memorial hall plans to digitalize the videotapes.