Nanjing Massacre memorial hall receives newly-donated items, documents

More than 120 new items and historical documents have been donated to the Memorial Hall for the Victims in Nanjing Massacre.

The Memorial Hall for the Victims in Nanjing Massacre [File photo: huitu.com]

On Wednesday, China marked the fourth national memorial day to commemorate the victims of the Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese invaders slaughtered about 300,000 Chinese during a six-week rampage after they captured the city, then China's capital, eight decades ago to this day.

The new additions include seals used by Shi Meiyu, chief justice of a military court set up in Nanjing for the trials to Japanese war criminals, and by John Rabe, a German businessman who helped protect Chinese citizens during the massacre.

The seals were donated to the memorial hall by Shi's son Shi Nanyang and Rabe's great grandson Christoph Reinhardt, the memorial hall announced Wednesday.

Other new additions to the memorial hall's collections include a bound volume titled "Japan's War in China," published by Miller's Review.

Miller's Review was an English-language paper published in Shanghai and the donated volume chronicles the war between China and Japan from 1937 to the end of 1939, said donator Dave Lu, a Chinese American who has made 14 donations to the Nanjing memorial hall.

"The donated items are varied and of high value. They together are reminders of what truly happened during that episode of history," said Guo Biqiang, a researcher with the Second Historical Archives of China.