Nanjing Massacre Exhibition to Open in San Francisco(12/14/01)
2003-10-21 16:08
An exhibition documenting the Nanjing Massacre by
Japanese invaders during World War II will open in San
Francisco on Sunday, organizers announced Tuesday in San
Francisco.
The exhibition and other activities
will be jointly organized by the Memorial Hall of the
Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, which
is based in Nanjing City, China, and the Chinese Holocaust
Museum of San Francisco. The other events will include
prayers for the victims of the massacre and a seminar.
Speaking at a press conference at St. Mary's
Cathedral, Chen Jiabao, vice-mayor of Nanjing, said that
staging the exhibition and other events is aimed at
remembering those massacred as well as Americans and other
nationals who helped the Chinese victims during the
massacre.
In December 1937, six weeks after
taking Nanjing, then the capital of China, Japanese invaders
massacred more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers
who surrendered their weapons; committed more than 20,000
cases of rape, and burned one third of the city's buildings.
The Nanjing Massacre was no less a crime than
the Holocaust, the systematic mass slaughter of European
Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, Chen
said. However, he said, Japan has always distorted its
history of the invasion of China and denies the Nanjing
Massacre. The vice-mayor said the exhibition will help the
American people to better understand that historical event.
Attending the press conference were officials
from China, Chinese consul general in San Francisco Wang
Yunxiang, Supervisor of San Francisco City Hall Leland Yee,
rector and Pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral John J. O'Connor,
as well as two survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, Luo
Zhongyang, 82, and Xia Shuqin, 72.
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Nanjing Massacre (Dec. 1937- Feb.
1938)
In December 1937, Nanjing fell to the
Japanese Imperial Army. The Japanese army launched a
massacre for six weeks. According to the records of several
welfare organizations which buried the dead bodies after the
Massacre, around three hundred thousand people, mostly
civilians and POWs, were brutally slaughtered.
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").
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