Chinese museum supports Ontario's first massacre victims commemoration

NANJING - A Chinese museum said on Friday that it will provide historical evidence to support the Canadian province of Ontario in marking its first official commemorative day for victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

The parliament of Ontario on Thursday passed a motion designating Dec 13 as Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day to mark the mass killing of 300,000 Chinese by Japanese troops in Nanjing.

It was the first regional legislature in a Western country to designate an official commemorative day for victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

Zhang Jianjun, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, said this year marks the 80th anniversary of the incident. He said he appreciated that Soo Wong, a member of the Ontario provincial parliament, had pushed for the passing of the motion.

Zhang said he had communicated with Wong by phone about the commemoration.

"Ontario is home to Canada's largest Asian community. However, children cannot learn from school textbooks the history of the atrocities during the Japanese invasion of China and other Asian countries," said the curator.

He said the museum will share its historical exhibits and coordinate with Ontario on organizing activities when the province marks the first commemorative day on Dec 13.

From Dec 13, 1937 to January 1938, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed in the massacre carried out by Japanese invaders after the city fell into the hands of the Japanese army. The event is also known as the Rape of Nanking. It was reported worldwide and witnessed by journalists from Western media.

UNESCO added the Nanjing Massacre to its Memory of the World Register in 2015, despite obstruction from the Japanese right wing.

Zhang said the UNESCO inscription has brought more international attention to the incident.