People in Nanjing have held a variety of activities to get ready for the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre and the country’s 4th National Memorial Day ceremony for the massacre victims that took place this morning.
The descendants of Shi Meiyu, the presiding judge of the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal, visited the Nanjing Museum of the Site of Lijixiang Comfort Stations to recall the historical moments.
Shi Nanyang, son of Shi Meiyu, donated the original copy of the written judgments for the Japanese war criminals to the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invaders after traveling from Taipei to Nanjing.
Shi Nanyang and his family are visiting Nanjing this time for the National Memorial Day ceremony on Thursday.
With his latest painting, "Cry of pain in Nanjing," French artist Christian Poirot is hoping to remind people of the sex slave victims of the Japanese military.
The painting is to join another three of his paintings on the same subject to be presented in China for the Nanjing Massacre Commemoration Day that falls on Dec. 13.
Poirot said he would like to use his canvas to contribute to the remembrance of "comfort women," a euphemism for victims of the sex slavery by and for the Imperial Japanese military during during the Second World War.
"I don't like this euphemism 'comfort women' used to designate the victims, very often underage, sometimes very young, of the mass sexual slavery system organized throughout Asia by and for the Imperial Japanese army and navy, in particular during the Second World War," the artist said.
Christian Poirot was born in 1961 and is a member of L'Institut de France. He was honored when two of his paintings were bought by former French President Jacques Chirac for his private collection.
The term was created by Japanese military authorities during the war. These women were swept up by the Imperial Japanese army to serve as sex slaves as part of a political system justified by the Japanese authorities, reminded the French painter.
In December 2015, Poirot donated his oil painting Deliverance to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. "Deliverance" is 2.35 meters high and 7.46 meters long and the biggest piece Poirot has created in more than 30 years. It depicts numerous scenes of violence, such as invaders beheading Chinese, women dying with babies in their arms, orphans crying by dead bodies. Dark clouds cover the city.
The CPC members of the local tax bureau in Nanjing visited the monument to the massacre victims at the Zhongshan Wharf where they laid flowers and swore their oath. They were also briefed by the descendants of the massacre survivors on the tragic stories happening 80 years ago.
From December 13, 1937 to January of 1938, 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed in Nanjing after the city fell into Japanese hands. China last year designated Dec. 13 National Memorial Day for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre.
