80% Nanjing Citizens Strongly Opposed to Rename 'Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 26, 2002

80% Nanjing Citizens Strongly Opposed to Rename 'Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall'

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CPPCC members suggested to rename 'Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall'

As reported, some Nanjing CPPCC members suggested the renaming the "Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre" as "China Nanjing International Peace Center" when they made an investigation on the protection of the memorial hall. But some 80 percent Nanjing citizens made a strong opposition to the suggestion of renaming the memorial hall.

According to the CPPCC members, the memorial hall is an important base for publicizing patriotism and world peace. It will exert far-reaching significance after changing its current name into China Nanjing International Peace Center, for what worth of remembering is not the massacre itself.

80% Nanjing citizens definitely disagree with the suggestion

However, an absolute majority of Nanjing citizens are opposed to renaming the memorial hall. Some 80 percent Nanjing citizens definitely disagree with the suggestion for they think the new name will fade out the history of Nanjing Massacre and extenuate the crime of Japanese invaders. The invaders have not examined themselves yet and our generosity will only bring shame to ourselves and make the latecomers forgetting the catastrophe and will be snorted by the Japanese. The Japanese themselves have put up some memorial halls to remember the history after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"It is not necessary"--a Japanese old man

"I was astonished at what I saw in the memorial hall," said a 58-year-old Japanese, who was in Nanjing at that time, "and it is not necessary to rename the memorial hall if the new name will not help enlarge the scale of the memorial hall."

5% Nanjing citizens deem the new name suitable

Besides, some 5 percent Nanjing citizens, most of them being young people, deem that the new name of International Peace Center has some far-reaching significance and more close to the theme of world peace.

By PD Online Staff Huang Ying

Nanjing Massacre (Dec. 1937- Feb. 1938)

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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