The Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre was completed and opened to the public on August 15, 1985, to commemorate the victims in the horrible massacre done by the Japanese invaders after they occupied Nanjing on December 13, 1937.
The hall has an area of 25,000 square meters and the construction area of its principal buildings is 2,100 square meters. On the eastern sidewall of the memorial, the engraved words 300,000 Victims in Chinese, English and Japanese are written in solemn black. Along the sidewall are 13 engraved steles, recording the main sites and some historical facts of the massacre. On the wall is a black-gray basso-relievo of 51 meters long and 2.2 meters high, which consists of three groups of pictures: manhunt, massacre, and fete.
Before the hall that houses the remains of some victims in the massacre, there is a 4-meter-tall Mother statue. Inside the hall, some of the bones excavated from theWanrenkeng(pit of ten thousand corpses) and the name list of some victims are on display.
In the document hall, there are photos, documents, on-the-spot records, Japanese soldiers' diaries, and testimonies of over 1,000 survivals, which document the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers against Chinese civilians during the 1937 occupation. There are also photos and judgment of the trials on flagitious Japanese war criminals held by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Military Court of China.
Finally, visitors can see the documentaryNanjing Massacre Invading Done By Japanese Army played in the theater hall of the museum.
Publications of the memorial includeCollection of Data about Nanjing Massacre Invading Done By Japanese Army,Collection of Photos about Nanjing Massacre Invading Done By Japanese ArmyandHistorical Documents of Data about Nanjing Massacre Invading Done By Japanese Army, etc. |
