A site in Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, was recently confirmed as
the place where more than 1,000 Chinese were massacred by marauding
Japanese troops on December 13, 1937, Xinhua News Agency
reported.
Historians said this was based on the testimonies of Japanese
veterans involved in the Nanjing Massacre as well as some "rrefutable
historical documents".
According to the Xinhua report, on August 15, the 62nd
anniversary of the end of World War II, an 18-member goodwill
delegation from the Japanese Meishinkai organization visited
Nanjing to pay homage to the memory of over 300,000 Chinese people
massacred by Japanese troops in December 1937.
Matsuoka Tamaki, the delegation's head, said that in 1997 she
began to interview Japanese veterans who had served in the imperial
forces.
Among the veterans interviewed, she said that six had been part
of the former No. 6 Squadron of the 33rd Company of the 16th
Imperial Division. "Their oral testimonies and written materials
indicate that a massacre site existed around the Taiping Gate area
of the city."
According to the veterans' descriptions, on December 13, 1937
the Japanese squadron escorted more than 1,000 Chinese people
shackled together to a place near Taiping Gate. The soldiers were
then "ordered to kill all of them in three different ways."
First, they were ordered to blow them up using landmines. "We
had buried mines in fixed places in advance, and forced the Chinese
people to walk on them". Second: burn them. "Some Japanese soldiers
poured gasoline on those Chinese people and set them alight".
Third: stab them with bayonets.
Ms. Matsuoka was told by one veteran that some Japanese soldiers
were even ordered to "conduct a comprehensive re-examination of the
site" the next day and remain on alert. "Anybody who was found
still breathing would be bayoneted or set alight".
Zhu Chengshan, the director of the Nanjing Massacre Museum, said
that after he consulted a great many historical documents he had
concluded that the Taiping Gate area was "undoubtedly a massacre
site".
"This is a new finding," Zhu said. "Previously the Nanjing
Massacre sites were considered to be primarily along the Yangtze
River. The Nanjing Military Court has confirmed more than 20 sites
where Japanese troops massacred Chinese people, but the Taiping
Gate area had never been previously mentioned."
Zhu said that the Taiping Gate area differed from other massacre
sites because it served both as a massacre site and as a burial
ground. "Killing people with landmines is an horrific crime seldom
seen in the world. This shows that Japanese troops were extremely
ferocious," he added.
As for the question of how many Chinese people were massacred
there, Zhu concluded, after reviewing the Japanese veterans'
testimony, that the figure must be more than 1,000.
A former Japanese commander named Sasaki led the 33rd Company in
those days. His diary verified the estimate. A notation cites:
"More than 1,300 Chinese people were massacred near the Taping
Gate."
The Nanjing Massacre Museum has begun erecting a monument on the
newly discovered massacre site to comfort the victims, Xinhua
reported.
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong August 17, 2007)