Remembering the Nanjing Massacre 85 years later

Chinese and U.S. elected officials joined members of the Chinese community in San Francisco to honor victims and survivors of the Nanjing Massacre and to pursue an enduring peace.

Eighty-five years ago, on Dec 13, 1937, Japanese troops captured Nanjing, which was China's capital at the time, commencing a slaughter that lasted more than 40 days. They killed 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers. Tens of thousands of women were raped.

The Chinese community groups in the San Francisco Bay Area have hosted an annual memorial service for the massacre's victims for more than 20 years in the hope of exposing the Japanese Army's war crimes and encouraging people to understand and remember the history.

"The Nanjing Massacre is one of the worst atrocities committed during World War II and one of the darkest chapters in human history," said Zhang Jianmin, Chinese consul general in San Francisco, at the service on Sunday.

"We gather here to mourn our compatriots and also to honor those who sacrificed their lives for the fight against the Japanese invasion," said Zhang. "Only when we squarely face history, we can create the future."

San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar attended the memorial service, saying such a ceremony was important for Chinese Americans like himself and the broader public to learn that history and never forget it.

"I knew a little bit about the pain and trauma that China suffered during World War II from my parents and grandparents. But it's through the dedicated work, particularly around the Nanjing Massacre, that I've really come to understand it more deeply," Mar told the audience.

In February 2014, China's top legislature designated Dec 13 as the National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims.

In 2015, the Nanjing Massacre was listed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Memory of the World Register, a compendium aimed at preserving documented heritage of universal value, making the massacre part of the world's collective memory.

However, the horrific mass killing is often overlooked internationally compared with other atrocities committed during World War II.

The Japanese government has been refusing to apologize for the wartime atrocities inflicted on the Chinese people. Japanese right-wing groups have even tried to deny the massacre.

"It has been 85 years since the Nanjing Massacre happened, and the survivors are very old now," said Jennifer Cheung, president of the Rape of Nanking Redress Coalition, one of the organizers of Sunday's ceremony.

"Their average age is 92 years old. In the past three years, 31 survivors have left us. Currently, there are only 55 survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, and 12 survivors of 'comfort women'," she said.

"It is really a race against time to fight for an apology and justice for them. I really hope that the Japanese government can wake up, apologize to these harmless old folks, and fulfill their simple will and bring the people of the two counties together with peace," said Cheung.