Nanjing Massacre exhibition to open in France

A museum dedicated to the 1937 massacre of Chinese citizens in Nanjing by Japanese invaders has sent historical photos and evidence to France for an exhibition.

The exhibition will open Saturday at the Caen Normandy Memorial Center for History and Peace and is titled "Common Witness: The Rape of Nanking or Nanjing Massacre."

It is the first overseas exhibition to display China's collection on the massacre since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the Nanjing Massacre to its Memory of the World Register last year.

The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre in east China's Jiangsu Province selected 270 photos as well as evidence and video records for the exhibition in France.

As inscribed in the Memory of the World Program, the collection documents the history of the massacre, which lasted from Dec. 13, 1937 to Jan. 1938, when more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed by Japanese invaders after the city fell into the hands of the Japanese army.

The Nanjing museum's exhibition planner said that the materials selected for the show in France will highlight humanitarian acts by foreigners during the massacre. Witnesses of the massacre included professors, missionaries, doctors, journalists and diplomats from America and Europe.

Among them, there were photos taken by American clergyman John Magee, as well as photos showing Dr. Robert O. Wilson treating a Chinese boy, who was stabbed in his right leg by the bayonet of a Japanese soldier.

Wilson was the only surgeon during the massacre. He saved thousands of Chinese people.

Next year will coincide with the massacre's 80th anniversary. The Caen Normandy Memorial Center for History and Peace plans to host an international forum in 2017 on World War II, which will include topics on the role of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Endi