(File photo)

China is applying to UNESCO to list documents relating to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre on the Memory of the World Register.

From Sunday to Tuesday, a UNESCO panel met in the United Arab Emirates to examine 87 nominations to the register, including the Nanjing documents.

Chinese authorities began submitting documents related to the Nanjing Massacre in March, but preparations for the filing actually date back to 2009.

Zhu Chengshan is the curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

"This memory is our nation's memory of being hurt during World War II. We should preserve the memory through this method. We will keep it in history and for our next generation and also to awaken or warn future generations."

The documents are divided into three categories: papers, photos and film footage.

All are first-hand materials.

The documents record Japanese invaders' crimes in China, including massacres, plunders and rapes.

UNESCO's Memory of the World Register program, started in 1992, has registered dozens of projects to reflect "documentary heritage."

The documents include Britain's 13th century Magna Carta, the World War II diary of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank and an annotated copy of Karl Marx's Das Kapital.