Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum

We had a little spare time on saturday, before the drinking commenced, so took a trip to the Massacre Memorial Museum. I had wanted to visit last time when I was here, but the museum was being rennovated. The rennovations have now been completed and the museum is a fantastic memorial to all those that lost their lives. Of course it is heavily biased to the chinese - Japanese are referred to as "devils" throughout - but nonetheless it is highly informative and worth a visit for anyone with an interest in (Chinese) history.

In the six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking on December 9 1937, 80,000 women and children were raped by the Imperial Japanese Army and hundreds of thousands of people murdered.

The names of 100,000 of victims that died in the massacre are inscribed on the wall surrounding the memorial

The number 300,000 is every where in the Museum - even donations made by benefactors were done in mutliples of 300,000 Yuan. A constant reminder of the number that died.

The memorial is built on the burial site of 100,000 of the victims. The bodies are laid

out in state, the sight is quite horrifying. After the hall you progress into an area where

there are candles lit for the victims.

The last area of the museum is devoted to ongoing relations between

the japanese and chinese and the last thing you see as you leave is the sign of peace -

和平 - He Ping - Peace