Nanjing Massacre survivor dies, leaving only 30 registered survivors

NANJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Wu Xiuying, who survived the Nanjing Massacre, passed away on Friday at the age of 92, bringing the number of living registered survivors to 30, said the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

The Nanjing Massacre refers to when Japanese troops captured the then Chinese capital on Dec. 13, 1937. Over six weeks, they killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in one of the most barbaric episodes of World War II.

In 1937, during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, Wu's brother, who had enlisted in the army, went to Shanghai with his unit and was never heard from again. In December, when the Japanese forces attacked Nanjing, they burned, killed and looted, forcing Wu's family to seek refuge on Mount Wutai in Nanjing and narrowly escape death.

"I hope that the younger generation will not forget history," Wu once said.

However, there are fewer and fewer survivors who can tell the story. In the first 10 days of 2025, Ai Yiying and Wu, two survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, passed away.

The Chinese government has preserved the survivors' testimonies, recorded in both written and video transcripts. The documents on the massacre were listed by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Register in 2015.