Documentary on Nanjing Massacre Donated to China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 18, 2002

Documentary on Nanjing Massacre Donated to China

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45-minute long, based on films shot by non-Chinese missionaries

The Chinese edition of a documentary on the massacre of some 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers by the invading Japanese army during World War II was donated to China Wednesday by its American producer Lou Reda.

The 45-minute documentary was presented to the Beijing-based Museum in Memory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression by Liu Renhao on behalf of the producer.

The documentary was produced in 1999 by Reda, a Chinese American famous for his documentary production, and promoted by an American association on the history of the resistance war against Japanese aggression during World War II.

The documentary was based on films shot by non-Chinese missionaries in Nanjing during the war and conclusions drawn by some historians.

The world needs to be reminded time and again

At the donation ceremony, Whitney R. Harris, an American citizen who served as a prosecutor in the 1945 Nuremberg trials in Germany, said those massacred in the streets of Nanjing were disarmed soldiers and unarmed civilians, and they were the victims of the Japanese imperial army.

He called on people around the world to support each other in a bid to build a world of peace and prosperity free from racial discrimination and hatred.

After the screening of the documentary, the first time on the Chinese mainland, Chen Qigang, curator of the museum, said people who watched the film would be shocked and indignant by the brutal and inhuman violence committed by the Japanese soldiers.

He said the attempts by Japanese right-wing forces to deny the historic facts of the Nanjing Massacre are unpopular.

At the premiere ceremony of the documentary in the United States, Harris said the massacre was horrifying, and the world needs to be reminded time and again so as to draw a lesson from it and strive to prevent it from happening again.

Backgrounder: 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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