Shanghai remembers Nanjing Massacre victims
Police and students lay flowers for Nanjing Massacre victims during a ceremony at the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall in Baoshan District.
Observing a moment of silence outside Sihang Warehouse on Thursday.
The city's wartime museums held memorial events on Thursday to mourn the 300,000 victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
An exhibition featuring photos and relics of wartime heroes was unveiled at the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Baoshan District. It attracted more than 300 visitors.
Baoshan was where the Japanese first landed in Shanghai and where the Songhu battles were fought in 1932 and 1937.
The infamous Nanjing Massacre in the Jiangsu provincial capital, was one of the darkest periods in human history when the Japanese kidnapped, raped and massacred Chinese people.
The memorial hall joined with the Longhua Memorial Hall of Martyrs to hold a special exhibition to commemorate the heroes of the anti-Japanese war.
The exhibition showcases the stories of 31 heroes in 91 photos and 43 sets of relics.
They include Yan Haiwen, a pilot who killed himself after his plane was shot down and he was rounded up by Japanese soldiers.
They also included battalion commander Yao Ziqing and his soldiers who fought with the Japanese for seven days to defend Baoshan, but were all killed.
Of the relics on display, 23 were being seen for the first time, including Yao’s letter of appointment and the sword of a Japanese general.
Meanwhile, many people gathered outside the Sihang Warehouse Battle Memorial in Jing’an District to sing the national anthem and place flowers to commemorate the victims.
Sihang Warehouse served as the military headquarters for the Japanese during their occupation of Shanghai in World War II. Around the warehouse, Chinese and Japanese soldiers engaged in a fierce four-day battle in 1937. It was one of the bloodiest campaigns in Shanghai's history. Bullet holes can still be seen in the walls.
