This is the first exhibition in Europe to display China’s collection on the massacre since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization added the Nanjing Massacre to its Memory of the World Register in 2015 [Xinhua]
A new Chinese exhibition in the French city of Caen in northwestern France revisits the atrocities committed by Japanese Imperial soldiers in China just before World War II.
The exhibit, titled Common Witness: The Nanjing Massacre”, showcases the historical accounts of the atrocities as soon through the eyes of European and American witnesses who were there during that time.
Between December 1937 and January 1938, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanjing in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, just west of the commercial hub of Shanghai.
The Japanese army committed mass murder and mass rape – the atrocity is also known as the Rape of Nanjing – killing more than 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers.
The historical documents and accounts of the Nanjing Massacre were added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Memory of the World Register in 2015.
“History does not change. History is not forgotten. It sheds light on the future. It is in remembering the cruelty of war that we understand better the value of peace. We meet here today, not to perpetuate the hatred, but to enable our future generations to live in peace,” Chinese Ambassador to France Zhai Jun said at the opening ceremony of the exhibit on Saturday.
The exhibition is being housed in an 800 square meter lot at the Caen Memorial in Caen and includes hundreds of photos and videos and physical evidence of the massacre.
Japan has never formally apologized for the Nanjing massacre, leading to recurring tension between Beijing and Tokyo.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
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