A survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, She Ziqing, has passed away in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, reducing the number of registered survivors of the atrocity committed by Japanese troops to 99.
She Ziqing, Nanjing Massacre survivor
“I am called She Ziqing, born in April 1934 at No. 10 of Jinling Road near Fuzimiao in Nanjing. In 1937, I was a bit over 3 years old.”
80 years ago She Ziqin’s mother was killed by invading Japanese troops when Nanjing fell. Her dead body was left unaccounted for. She Ziqin and his elder brothers and sisters fled to the US Embassy to seek shelter.
As a survivor, She Ziqing had volunteered to be a tour guide at the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invaders by working over 4000 hours altogether. His footprint is among the footprints left by 222 survivors on the copper plates inside the memorial museum.
She Ziqing, Nanjing Massacre survivor
“I have always told them not to forget national humiliation. In the process of rejuvenating the Chinese nation, it is important to bear in mind the history, not hatred.”
Chen Junfeng, deputy curator of the Memorial Hall
When we visited him on Monday, he was lying on the hospital bed. He said he wanted to attend this year’s National Memorial Ceremony for the Nanjing Massacre victims. He was barely able to recognize his relatives but he was well aware of the officials and the volunteers from the museum. He hoped that we could pass down this piece of history.
From Dec. 13, 1937 to January 1938, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed in the massacre carried out by Japanese invaders after the city fell into the hands of the Japanese army.
The massacre victims are the living evidence of the mass killing waged by the Japanese invaders in the city.
80 years has passed and four volunteer guides at the memorial museum, including She, have died.
Chen Junfeng, deputy curator of the Memorial Hall
In 1987 there were 1756 survivors, according to our calculation, in 2004 there were 400 but now the number of registered survivors has been reduced to 99.
Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation is now recording the oral testimonies of all the registered and surviving Nanjing Massacre survivors to be kept as a valuable historical image file. JSBC has also edited each survivor's dictation into a 3-5-minute series of micro-documentaries entitled What the Survivors Say: Blood 1937, which is scheduled to be launched this year before and after the National Memorial Day.
