Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall

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Hi All,

This was my reason for visiting Nanjing. After visiting Unit 731 in Ha'erbin and discovering what the Imperial Japanese army did there and in Manchuria I wanted to visit the Nanjing Memorial Hall to discover what happened here.

Nanjing has been the capital of China on two occasions, once in the Ming dynasty and again in1912 when China became a republic.The Imperial Japanese army invaded China in 1937 finally taking the capital in December. The KMT nationalist government had already fled to Chongqing leaving behind an under equipped defensive force. In fact it's said that the gates of the city were locked leaving everyone locked inside. When the city fell orders were given to the soldiers to rape, pillage burn and kill. They were under strict orders to not take any prisoners. Soldiers had competitions to see who could kill, with a samurai sword, the most Chinese people. Soldiers also used living people for bayonet practice. The bodies piled up in the streets so much that the soldiers took to burning the corpses using petrol. The incredible brutality beggars belief.

There were quite a few German citizens living in Nanjing at the time and they formed the Red Swastika society to help protect the living and to buy the dead. In fact just outside the memorial hall is a mass grave of around 10,000 victims that were buried in three days by the Red Swastika Society. It does seem weird seeing the Nazi symbol being used as a good thing. Nanjing returned to be China's capital after the Japanese surrender in 1946.

Between 300-350,000 people were killed during “The Rape of Nanjing” as it became known. The memorial hall is not for the faint hearted and the Japanese Army photographs are graphic. The message of the museum is of reconciliation and forgiving but not forgetting. I manage to sneak a few photos inside the memorial hall even though I wasn't supposed to.

Enjoy the photos

Jah Bless

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