PEOPLE across China, particularly in Nanjing City, gathered yesterday to grieve for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre, murdered by Japanese soldiers 70 years ago, and asked for eternal peace throughout the world.
Bells tolled and Nanjing was in grief as nearly 10,000 people gathered in the eastern Chinese city at 10:00am to mourn the more than 300,000 slaughtered by the Japanese invaders 70 years ago.
The rally was held at a square in front of the memorial hall for the Chinese victims massacred by Japanese soldiers, with the crowd silently mourning the dead and laying wreaths.
The mourners, including school children, college students, survivors of the massacre and international friends, passed a Nanjing declaration of peace calling on "all peace-loving people to be united in building a peaceful, harmonious and reconciliatory new world."
More than 100 survivors of the massacre attended yesterday's gathering. Xia Shuqin, 77, said that seven of her family of nine were killed in the massacre.
"I was seriously wounded but fortunately survived," she said.
"I've been here to mourn the dead every year on December 13," said Zhao Bin, 70. "We can forget hatred but we must not forget history."
She Ziqing, 75, laid a wreath for his mother, who was killed by the Japanese. "Seventy years on, the pain is always there," he said tearfully.
"When the Japanese troops invaded Nanjing on December 13, 1937, they killed almost every Chinese in sight. Many people fled to the banks of the Yangtze River but most of them were shot dead. My dad narrowly escaped and crossed the river, but my mum, who stayed home, was killed," said the old man.
"The China-Japan relationship has developed comprehensively since the two countries normalized their diplomatic ties 35 years ago," said Xu Zhonglin, chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
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