The video materials of oral testimonies of over 100 survivors of the Nanjing Massacre was donated by Tamaki Matsuoka to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders on April 4.
From 1988 on, Matsuoka has been to Nanjing for nearly 100 times to interview the survivors of the massacre and recorded interviews with them. Her mission of doing this initiated from her primary job as an elementary school teacher in Osaka, Japan. She said she wanted to help her students have correct and objective view of this part of history. People should know about the truth.
During the past 30 years or so, Matsuoka has interviewed more than 300 survivors and recorded both the visual and oral testimonies. Inviting some of the survivors to Japan, Matsuoka has also organized hearings for testimonies. Every year she comes to Nanjing, she’ll pay visits to the survivors, asking them to dinner, talking to them and making every effort to comfort and console them.
Talking about some of the early interviews, Matsuoka said that many of the survivors she’d pay visits to felt very upset and uncertain about Matsuoka and her purpose. Repeatedly explaining to them, Matsuoka and her colleague were finally allowed to do the interviews and recordings. To better prove the testimonies of these survivors, Matsuoka later interviewed many Japanese veterans who have been involved in this war.
Zhang Jianjun, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, received the donation and expressed his sincere appreciation, and sent Matsuoka archived materials in return. According to Zhang, the survivors in the massacre are now aged and less than 100 of them are still on the list. The testimony materials donated by Matsuoka were recorded at an early time when most of the
