China commemorates Nanjing massacre Memorial Day

(MENAFN) China observed its 12th National Memorial Day on Saturday to honor the victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, according to reports. Despite cold weather, thousands dressed in dark clothing and gathered at the Memorial Hall square in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, to pay tribute.

At 10:01 a.m. (0201 GMT), sirens rang throughout the city, prompting drivers to stop and honk in unison while pedestrians paused to observe a moment of silence. The national flag was lowered to half-mast as survivors joined the commemorations.

In 1937, Japanese forces captured Nanjing, then the capital of the Chinese Republic. China states that over 300,000 people were killed. Japan continues to dispute the massacre’s scale, though the international community generally recognizes it, despite differing accounts of the number of casualties.

In 2015, UNESCO accepted Chinese documents documenting Japanese “atrocities” in Nanjing into its Memory of the World register, a move that sparked objections from Tokyo, according to reports.

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