In the space of the Nanjing Massacre, foreign nationals carried out local space production, which generated huge humanitarian value and had worldwide significances.

After the war, under the background of Japanese right-wing forces beautifying the war of aggression and denying the historical facts of the massacre, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders carried out spatial reproduction based on the historical heritage to express the war memory and the concept of peace of Chinese people.

The Production of Nanjing Massacre Space

On December 9, 1937, the Japanese army occupied positions on the eastern and southern sides of Nanjing. Nanjing garrison commander Tang Shengzhi made a strong response and issued the "Garrison Staff Combat No. 36 Order”.

The order was going to make Nanjing a bloody space between the Chinese and the Japanese armies to the end. On December 10, the Japanese army launched a general attack on Nanjing. After a series of fierce battles, the position of the Chinese army wavered. At noon on December 12, Tang issued the evacuation order.

Tang Shengzhi issued the order in a hurried way, so the order failed to effectively reach all the troops. They went into chaos. Consequently, except for a few troops that broke to the rear of the Japanese army, the vast majority of Chinese troops rushed to the city to retreat, through Zhongshan Road and Yi Jiangmen back to the edge of the Yangtze River from Xiaguan to the Swallow Cape.

On December 13, the Japanese navy cut off the Yangtze river, spraying Chinese soldiers as they swam across the river. Then the Japanese army occupied the city of Nanjing, where hid the Chinese soldiers who laid down their arms, refugees from other places, hundreds of thousands of citizens of Nanjing and more than 20 foreign nationals. It was a city isolated from the outside world. This space was extremely closed, and the outside world was not able to know what’s happening the city, while the city was not able to seek help from the outside world.

Knowing the atrocities, the highest commander of the local Japanese army MATSUI Iwane failed to take effective measures to stop but turned a blind eye to the massacre and other atrocities. Nanjing became a space for massacre.

Space production in the space of the Nanjing Massacre

Before the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, a large number of foreign nationals in Nanjing left Nanjing. Still, more than 20 foreigners in education, religion, and business stayed in Nanjing. They created the space "Nanjing safety zone". On the platform of "International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone" and "the Nanjing Branch of the International Federation of Red Cross, they engaged in humanitarian relief activities.

 Some Members of the International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone (from left: Forster, Mills, Rabe, Smythe, Sperling, Fitch)

On December 21, 1937, westerners staying in Nanjing went to the Japanese Embassy to deliver a letter of protest, which was signed by all 22 expatriates.

In addition, the outskirts of Nanjing were also inhabited by westerners, namely Karl Gunter, a German, and Sindberg, a Dane. Together with the aforementioned 22 westerners living in the city, they were the main force of local space production in the space of Nanjing Massacre.

"Safe Zone" space led by the neutral did not survive long. Under strong pressure of the Japanese army at that time, their fate was unknown. Even so, it made a totally different Nanjing at that time from other occupied cities in China. It had not only enabled China's Anti-Japanese War to further highlight its worldwide significance, but also had made the massacre-related files become the important foundation of human memory legacies.

Space Reproduction and Historical Memory of the Nanjing Massacre

In the early 1980s, after a historic period of friendship between China and Japan, Japan's right-wing forces revived the dispute over the Nanjing Massacre.

Changes in East Asian politics led to the creation of new spaces. In 1983, the Nanjing municipal government set up a “work team for the developing of museum, monument and historical compilation of Nanjing Massacre ". On December 13, the same year, the Nanjing Massacre site by the Japanese invaders in Jiangdong Gate erected the foundation stone for the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders. In 1985, Deng Xiaoping inscribed the name of the memorial hall. On August 15 of the same year, the memorial hall was opened. At the same time, in other 17 massacre sites and graves of massive victims like the Caoxie Gorge, the Swallow Cape, and the Zhongshan Wharf, a monument was set up. A space that was systematic, condensed the history of the Nanjing Massacre and had a clear direction had been generated.

The space production and the exhibitions of the memorial hall carry out the problem consciousness of responding to and refuting the right wing of Japan, and the value orientation of patriotism is guided by the sad memory. The memorial hall has become an important base for gathering relevant historical memories, criticizing the Japanese right wing, uniting peace forces and conducting patriotic education.

Memory has been constantly growing, enriching the space, making the space increasingly add to its meaning. The space semantics of the memorial hall has changed a lot since 1985.

On February 27, 2014, the seventh meeting of the standing committee of the National People's Congress filed a decision to set December 13 of each year as the "National Memorial Day for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre" to "mourn the victims of the Nanjing Massacre and all the victims killed by the Japanese aggressors during the Japanese imperialist war of aggression against China".

2014 National Memorial Ceremony

In this way, the memorial hall has evolved from a space for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre to a space for all victims of Japan's war of aggression against China. It actually means that foreigners who died in Japan's war of aggression against China are also among those commemorated.

This passage is selected from Research on the Nanjing Massacre of Japan's Aggression against China.

Author: Zhang Sheng, Doctor of History, Professor of Center for the History of Republican China of Nanjing University, President of Institute for History Research of Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders