120 historical items donated to Nanjing Massacre museum

A historical item donated to Nanjing Massacre museum by Lu Zhaoning, a Chinese-American is on display. (Photo: Xinhua/Han Yuqing)

The Nanjing Massacre museum received a donation of 120 pieces of World War II memorabilia, including pictures of Japan's the surrender ceremony and silk-made combat maps used by U.S. troops.

The items include magazines, books, photos, maps and letters. They display the atrocities of Japanese troops and anti-Japanese efforts of overseas Chinese as well as cooperation by China-U.S.forces.

Lu Zhaoning, a Chinese-American who was born in Nanjing, the provincial capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, donated the items to the city's Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

Four silk-made maps displaying different regions of China were used by U.S. pilots during WWII.

Four of the pictures showed the surrender ceremony of Japan in Nanjing on Sept.9, 1945.

These items have great value to help study the crimes of Japanese forces and the joint fighting of anti-fascist alliance, said Zhu Chengshan, curator of the museum.

Previously, Lu donated more than 500 historical items to the museum.

On Dec. 13, 1937, Japanese troops began six weeks of destruction, pillage, rape and slaughter in Nanjing. Historical records show more than 300,000 Chinese, including unarmed soldiers and innocent civilians, were murdered.

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War.