Nanjing Massacre Exhibition to Open in San Francisco

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 12, 2001

Nanjing Massacre Exhibition to Open in San Francisco

The exhibition documenting the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese invaders during World War II will be jointly organized by the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, which is based in Nanjing City, China, and the Chinese Holocaust Museum of San Francisco.

An exhibition documenting the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese invaders during World War II will open in San Francisco on Sunday, organizers announced Tuesday in San Francisco.

The exhibition and other activities will be jointly organized by the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, which is based in Nanjing City, China, and the Chinese Holocaust Museum of San Francisco. The other events will include prayers for the victims of the massacre and a seminar.

Speaking at a press conference at St. Mary's Cathedral, Chen Jiabao, vice-mayor of Nanjing, said that staging the exhibition and other events is aimed at remembering those massacred as well as Americans and other nationals who helped the Chinese victims during the massacre.

In December 1937, six weeks after taking Nanjing, then the capital of China, Japanese invaders massacred more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers who surrendered their weapons; committed more than 20,000 cases of rape, and burned one third of the city's buildings.

The Nanjing Massacre was no less a crime than the Holocaust, the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, Chen said. However, he said, Japan has always distorted its history of the invasion of China and denies the Nanjing Massacre. The vice-mayor said the exhibition will help the American people to better understand that historical event.

Attending the press conference were officials from China, Chinese consul general in San Francisco Wang Yunxiang, Supervisor of San Francisco City Hall Leland Yee, rector and Pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral John J. O'Connor, as well as two survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, Luo Zhongyang, 82, and Xia Shuqin, 72.

Nanjing Massacre (Dec. 1937- Feb. 1938)

In December 1937, Nanjing fell to the Japanese Imperial Army. The Japanese army launched a massacre for six weeks. According to the records of several welfare organizations which buried the dead bodies after the Massacre, around three hundred thousand people, mostly civilians and POWs, were brutally slaughtered.

Over twenty thousand cases of rape were reported. Many of the victims were gang raped and then killed. The figure did not include those captives who were sent to army brothels (the so-called "comfort stations").

Japanese Invasion Undeniable

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Nanjing Massacre Exhibition to Make US Tour