Photos From Germany Offer New Evidence of Nanjing Massacre

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 08, 2002

Photos From Germany Offer New Evidence of Nanjing Massacre

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German woman Edith Gunther has recently donated 41 photos to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre in east China's Jiangsu Province, presenting new evidence of the holocaust committed by Japanese invaders during the Second World War.

The photos were all copies of pictures taken by Edith's husband,Karl, who, together with other friendly foreigners, helped set up a refugee camp at the Jiangnan Cement Plant during the massacre, saving as many as 50,000 lives.

Karl Gunther took great risks in taking pictures reflecting life in the Qixia Temple and Jiangnan Cement Plant refugee camps between the winter of 1937 and the spring of 1938, and the demolishing of the cement plant by Japanese troops.

"These pictures preserved by foreign nationals will help revealthe truth of the Nanjing Massacre and offer new evidence against the vicious arguments of Japanese rightists who have attempted to deny the aggressors' crimes," Zhu Chengshan, head of the memorial hall, said at the donation ceremony.

About 300,000 Chinese were killed by Japanese troops after the fall of Nanjing, the then capital of the Kuomintang government, inthe winter of 1937.

"Never Forget" -- Exhibition of Nanjing Massacre Opens in San Francisco

An exhibition on the Nanjing Massacre by the invading Japanese troops during World War II opened Sunday evening at St. Mary's Cathedral, the largest church in San Francisco.

U.S. congressman Mike Honda, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, Chinese consul general in San Francisco Wang Yunxiang, and vice-mayor of China's Nanjing City Chen Jiabao cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony.

The exhibition which will last until December 29 is based mainly on photographs, material objects, records, printings and personal accounts collected from a group of Westerners living in Nanjing in 1937 when the massacre took place. During six weeks that year, the Japanese invading troops slaughtered more than 300,000 Chinese men, women and children, raped more than 20,000 Chinese women and burnt one-third of the buildings in Nanjing, then the capital city of China.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Honda, Brown and the Chinese officials all highlighted the educational significance of the exhibition, an education not only for this generation, but for generations in the future.

Brown said that only when the knowledge about the massacre is shared today can future atrocities be prevented. Honda, an American-Japanese, said that the Japanese government must first of all recognize what happened in 1937 and apologize for it, so that Japan can move forward as a neighbor. Full Story

Nanjing Massacre

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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