Nanjing Massacre Memorial: The Forgotten Agony of 300000 Victims

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Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China as well as the capital of six ancient dynasties. Literally Nanjing means the Southern Capital while the current capital of China, Beijing means the Northern Capital. The city is now the capital of Jiangsu province and one of the biggest cities in the People’s Republic with the population of more than 10 million people.

Located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, this city is one of the most delightful tourist destinations in China. Her history can be traced back to as early as 500 BC and became famous when it was designated as the capital of China during the three kingdom period in the early 3rd Century AD.

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Nanjing Massacre Memorial

During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese armies occupied Nanjing in 1937. And in the period of less than 6 months, more than 300 thousand people became the victims of this brutal occupation. The Chinese people will never forget this tragedy that in 1985, a memorial hall to the victims of Nanjing Massacre was established by Nanjing Municipal Government. In 1995, this memorial site was extended to cover an area of more than 28 thousand square meters.
The memorial hall is located in Jiangdomen , one of the sites of the execution as well as where the burial places were found.
With bus no 7 from downtown Nanjing, we visited this monument. The very first sights were collections of strange and unique bronze statues displayed in the courtyard of the memorial.

Free Entrance to Feel the Agony of the Victims
To enter this memorial, no ticket is required. All we have to do was to queue in the security check point as if we were about to board an airplane at the airport.
After passing through the security, we entered the inner courtyard of the memorial complex. The main sight of this courtyard, there was a huge black marble wall standing in a corner as if welcoming all visitors. On the wall, written in ten languages “Victims - three hundred thousand”. In Chinese, the figure is written in bigger font “300.000”. This figure is meant to remind the visitors of the big numbers of victims during the Nanjing Massacre of December 1937.

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The Great Bell of Peace

Beside the marble walls showing three hundred thousand victims, a great bronze bell also attracted our attention. This was “The great bell of Peace” with the height of 3 meters represents the three hundred thousand victims and the diameter of the lower opening as wide as 1,937 meter indicates the year of 1937 as the sad year of the people of Nanjing.
The weight of this bell is 6.6 tons to memorize that the bell was made in the 66th anniversary of the event in 2003. The surface of the upper part of the bell is decorated with 30 plum blossoms and inscribed with 56 Chinese characters for funeral orations. On the lower surface, there is also 56 graphs for peace from 56 minority nationalities in China.

Coffin-shape Exhibits for the Remaining Bones

The exhibit for the remaining bones of the victims is house in a big coffin-shape building with light brown color brick exterior design. In front of this building, a miserable looking giant head statue showing a man in his agony. This statue created a sad atmosphere to us. And inside the building more shocking evidence of the brutality and atrocity of the occupation were found. This area also named “The pit of ten thousand bodies” as thousand of bones of the victims were excavated in 1998.

Not far from this building, another tomb-like exhibition hall which is buried half underground, displayed thousands of items to memorize this tragic event.

The Goddess of Peace
Before we left the area through the exit from the other side of the entrance another lady statue names “The Goddess of Peace “ standing in the middle of a park decorated with fountains. This goddess of peace seems to give a consolation message to all the visitors that an understanding of the bleak past can create a better future not only to the Chinese people but also to all mankind.