Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day
The National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre is a national memorial day observed in China on 13 December annually in honor of the Chinese victims of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The observance draws attention to Japanese war crimes during this period. It was established in 2014 by the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress.
The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall pictured in 2017 with signs for Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day
During the Nanjing Massacre, Japanese soldiers forced Chinese civilians into pits to be buried alive.
The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanking and the retreat of the National Revolutionary Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted six weeks. The perpetrators also committed other war crimes such as mass rape, looting, torture, and arson. The massacre is considered to be one of the worst wartime atrocities.
A Japanese soldier pictured with the corpses of Chinese civilians by the Qinhuai River
An article on the "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword" published in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun. The headline reads, "'Incredible Record' (in the Contest to Cut Down 100 People) – Mukai 106–105 Noda – Both 2nd Lieutenants Go into Extra Innings".
A sword used in the "contest" is on display at the Republic of China Armed Forces Museum in Taipei, Taiwan
Prince Yasuhiko Asaka in 1935.