Survivors and relatives of victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre met in Nanjing January 19 to denounce the attempt of Japanese right-wing forces to deny historical facts and whitewashing wartime crimes committed by Japanese aggressors.

They referred to the massacre as an irrefutable and widely-known atrocity, and called on the authorities in Osaka to stop the planned anti-China rally scheduled by Japan's right-wing forces for the International Peace Center in Osaka on January 23.

"Japan's right-wing forces have been trying to negate historical facts," said Qin Jie, 74, who survived the massacre. "They are real liars."

Qin recalled that he saw piles of bodies of local people killed by Japanese soldiers in a river during the massacre in December 1937.

Qin and his parents had a narrow escape, but one of his aunts was raped and killed by Japanese soldiers.

Li Xiuying, then pregnant, was stabbed 37 times when she resisted the ferocity of Japanese soldiers on December 19, 1937.

"The debts of blood owed by the Japanese aggressors haven't been paid yet," said Li, 81. "Now the Japanese right-wing forces are hurting us again by trying to deny the atrocity publicly."

Shang Deshou, whose father and eldest brother were both killed by Japanese soldiers, said that the Japanese right-wing forces will never succeed in whitewashing wartime crimes committed by the Japanese aggressors.

Another of Shang's brothers bore witness at the Far East International Military Tribunal in 1946, which tried Japanese war criminals and pronounced them guilty.

Invading Japanese troops massacred about 300,000 innocent Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers, and raped more than 20,000 local women in Nanjing in December 1937, according to Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Memorial Hall to Victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

"Nanjing people will never forget the extremely cruel massacre," said Zhu. "The Osaka authorities should take effective steps to stop the planned anti-China gathering and safeguard friendship between the Chinese and Japanese peoples." (Xinhua)