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China holds 3rd national memorial day for war victims

Xinhua, December 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The third national memorial day was held in eastern Chinese city of Nanjing on Tuesday to commemorate hundreds of thousands of victims murdered during the Japanese invasion almost eight decades ago.

On Dec. 13, 1937, Nanjing, the ancient Chinese capital for six dynasties, fell to Japanese invaders who went on to slaughter civilians for more than a month. About 300,000 Chinese were killed, and 20,000 women raped.

The Nanjing Massacre left a deep psychological scar on the Chinese for generations to come.

On Tuesday morning, amid chilly wind and drizzle, more than 8,000 people gathered at a square in front of the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province. The mourners were dressed in black, with white flowers pinned to their chests.

Sirens blared for one minute throughout the city. Doves flew, cars stopped, and pedestrians stood still to mourn the deceased in silence. The ceremony was broadcast live in Najing's public venues, including subway stations where commuters paused and watched.

Drivers honked horns in a commercial street to echo the siren. One of them, a 36-year-old man surnamed Xu, gestured to a roadside electronic screen with the slogan "Victory for Justice, Victory for People, Victory for Peace," saying, "That's our common aspiration."

Among the attendees were several survivors of the war in their 80s.

Xia Shuqin, 87, wept as she watched the ceremony proceed. She and her younger sister were the only survivors in a family of nine. Xia said she had attended the memorial day event for the past three years and would continue to do so.

The Nanjing Massacre is seen in China as the nadir of an era in which it was bullied and humiliated by foreign powers. In February 2014, China's top legislature designated December 13 as the national memorial day.

"Without a strong army and a powerful state, Chinese people would have never stood up," said Shi Jianwei, a Nanjing retiree who attended the ceremony. "We should turn the lessons of humiliation in to a motive for the nation's rejuvenation." Endi