'We must never forget the history'

The memorial hall has collected crucial evidence of more than 4,000 documents.

"Many of the survivors have spoken recently about their experience to us," said Zhu. "As time passes, their testimonies become more urgent."

Guan Shunhua, 87, a survivor of the massacre, is overcome by emotion during a ceremony for the victims in Nanjing on Thursday. [Photo by SONG QIAO / FOR CHINA DAILY]

Families of survivors are helping to record their accounts of the atrocity.

Sina Weibo confirmed on Thursday that there are seven verified micro blog accounts of survivors.

One of the survivors who opened a micro blog last December, Zhou Shaohua, passed away in April, leaving his wife to continue updating their account.

Gu Xiulan, 88, visited the memorial hall in a wheelchair on Thursday, accompanied by her son and daughter.

Gu's son, Long Jinyuan, said that his mother remembers and grieves for her slaughtered relatives and murdered father every day.

Gu was 13 when the Japanese took the city and her father was a farmer growing vegetables near the city's Beijingxi Road. A Japanese soldier killed him by crushing his chest with a rock.

Gu's older sister was pregnant. She fled in terror and died in a refugee center at Jinling Women's University.

"Both my sister and the baby died. Both of them," said Gu.

Xia Shuqin is also a survivor, and her story is one of those broadcast in the hall.

Xia, 83, won a lawsuit in Japan after suing two rightist historians in 2009.

In the case, the Japanese Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Shudo Higashinakano, an Asia University scholar, and Tendensha, a publishing house, and ordered them to pay a combined total of 4 million yen ($44,500) in damages to Xia.

In his book, Higashinakano defamed Xia by saying she was a false witness to the mass murder, and claimed that she was not featured in a documentary shot by John Magee. The book, published by Tendensha in 1998, was translated into English and Chinese and sold thousands of copies.

The court ruled that Xia's reputation had been damaged and that she had suffered psychological trauma. The verdict demanded an immediate end to the publishing of the books and the recall and destruction of all sold books.

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Nanjing Massacre victims remembered in E China