The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders
The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders is a thematic memorial hall built on the site of Jiangdong Gate mass murder in the Nanjing Massacre, which was officially opened to the public on August 15, 1985. After more than 30 years of construction and development, it has grown into a "National First-Class Museum" with high international visibility.
The Memorial Hall covers a total area of 103,000 square meters, with a building area of 57,000 square meters and the exhibition area of 20,000 square meters. It has a large number of unique buildings where many primary-source of historical records, artifacts and photographs are displayed, supplemented by sculptures, public memorial square, cemetery square, victory square, peace park with historical significance, forming a rich memorial space.
Except for the existing Memorial Hall, a branch hall has also been set up. Altogether there are three basic thematic exhibitions, namely the historical records of Nanjing Massacre, the theme exhibition of "three victories", and the "sex slaves in World War II -- the 'Comfort Women' system in Japanese army and their crimes". The Memorial Hall displayed history about the Nanjing Massacre, the "Comfort Women" system set by Japanese army, the great victory of the Chinese people's resistance against Japanese aggression. A total of near 4000 photographs, all kinds of 9,992 pieces of records and artifacts, along with 262 video materials are on display, expressing the five main themes of violence, resistance, victory, trial, and peace in rational and serious manners.
The Memorial Hall buries three sites of "mass grave" in the Nanjing Massacre, which respectively displays the remains of victims found in 1984, 1998-1999 and 2006. Besides, more than 6,000 artifacts and records of several major categories are kept in the Memorial Hall, among which a silent film director used by American pastor John Magee during the Nanjing Massacre to record the atrocity, along with the recording data has been included in the Memory of the World Register by UNESCO.
Since its official opening on August 15, 1985, the Memorial Hall has received more than 90 million viewers from over 100 countries and regions by the end of 2017. It has been visited by a number of party and state leaders such as Xi Jinping, the Danish queen Margaret II, and by important foreign government leaders such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Japanese prime minister Toshiki Kaifu, Tomiichi Murayama, Yukio Hatoyama,Yasuo Fukuda, and the Australian Senate President Margaret Reed, etc., as well as by foreign ambassadors to China and consul generals to Shanghai from more than 30 countries. In recent years, the Memorial Hall has received nearly 100 foreign media interviews from more than 30 countries and regions such as the United States, UK, Canada, Japan and Spain,to name only few.
Since December 13, 1994, the Memorial Hall has become the place for Jiangsu Province and all sectors of society in Nanjing to host activities of mourning the victims in Nanjing Massacre. Since December 13, 2014, the Memorial Hall has also been chosen as the fixed host place for the national memorial ceremony for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre.