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Source: People's Republic of China in Russian – People's Republic of China in Russian –
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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
NANJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — Nanjing Massacre survivor Xu Deming died on Friday at the age of 96, bringing the total number of registered living survivors of the tragedy to 22, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum in east China's Jiangsu Province said.
The Nanjing Massacre occurred after the Japanese occupation forces captured Nanjing, then the capital of China, on December 13, 1937. Over the course of six weeks, the invaders killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers. This tragedy is considered one of the most barbaric episodes of World War II.
"In 1937, Japanese invaders broke into my home and took my father. They sent him to Shuiximen, then to the Qingliangshan area for massacre. Someone spotted my father there and told my older brother. We searched everywhere, but we never found his body," Xu Deming once recalled.
"My father was only 54 years old when he died. Our family fled to a refugee area where we faced starvation," he said.
Every year there are fewer and fewer people left who can tell about the massacres in Nanjing.
In 2014, the Seventh Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) designated December 13 as National Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre. The Chinese government also preserved survivors' testimonies, recording them both in writing and on video. In 2015, these documents were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
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