On Dec 13, 1937, the Japanese army occupied Nanjing and during the following six weeks bore witness to the inhumane disgrace and bloody massacre exerted on the city. No less than 300,000 innocent civilians and unarmed Chinese soldiers were brutally slaughtered in mass and individual beheadings, burying alive, burning, and killing races. 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’). A third of the architectures together with their contents were damaged by fire and countless shops, stores and residences were looted and sacked. Corpses were seen floating on rivers and littered the streets and lanes. Whether they were children or the aged, from residents to nuns, few could escape from the savage atrocity.

The Memorial Hall to the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre was built by Nanjing Municipal Government in 1985 and extended in 1995, covering an area of 28,000 sq meters (302,400 sq ft). It is located in Jiangdongmen, one of the execution sites and mass burial places of the massacre. Solemn and imposing, the grey marble architecture consists of three parts: the outdoor exhibits, the remaining bones of the victims and the exhibition hall for historical documents.

The outdoor exhibits all vividly represent grief and indignation, life and death. Statues, group sculptures and relief carvings stand solemnly among green pines and cypresses, together with the monument upon which is engraved the dates of the tragic events ’1937.12.13 - 1938.’ while two marble walls are engraved with the name of the hall and ’300,000 Victims ’. Three large groups of carved reliefs and seventeen small tablets upon which the major sites and historical facts of the massacre are carved, surrounded by withered trees and cobblestones, the wall upon which the names of the victims are listed and the atonement tablet, together form a permanent and moving record of the bloody tragedy.

The remaining bones of victims in the massacre, which were excavated from Jiangdongmen in 1985, are exhibited in a coffin-shaped display hall. There were 208 more bones uncovered from this ’pits of tens of thousands bodies’ in 1998. Another tomb-like exhibition hall, which is buried half underground, contains over 1000 items that illustrate the terrible tragedy of Nanjing. Paintings, sculptures and illuminated display cabinets and multi-media screens as well as documentary films all contribute to this reminder of the horrendous crimes perpetrated on the Chinese people.

The hall was not built as a sign of indignation but a lasting memorial to the victims and a warning of history. The memorial hall and the historical materials it contains present themselves as iron proofs on the inhuman crimes the Japanese troops ever committed. But a number of Japanese politicians and writers claimed that the Massacre had never occurred and history textbooks were rewritten by the Japanese authority describing the Massacre as a minor incident. It must be reminded that contrary to Germany the Japanese government has never made any formal or official apology to the Chinese people for their crimes committed during the war. Instead, a number of Japanese politicians and writers denied not just the Massacre but any of their wrong doings in the Second World War. They claimed that they had 'liberated' Asian peoples from Western colonialism. The Nanjing Massacre is one of their so-called 'liberations'. This Memorial Hall is created to expose their lies and to preserve the historical truth. Let the victims of the Massacre be remembered but not buried in lies.