On April 4, the Memorial Hall held a Tomb-Sweeping Memorial ceremony in memory of Chinese people killed in the Nanjing Massacre in front of the Wall of Tears. The representatives from the families of the Nanjing Massacre survivors and families of the Nanjing Massacre victims attended the ceremony to mourn their loved ones who died in the Nanjing Massacre 86 years ago. Some Chinese and foreign students also attended the ceremony.

This year is the 86th anniversary of the tragedy of the Nanjing Massacre. With their average age more than 93, the number of the Nanjing Massacre survivors is on the decline. Today, the responsibility for passing on the memory of the Nanjing Massacre falls on the shoulders of their descendants. Yu Huiru is among them. After her father Yu Changxiang passed away last year, she took on the baton of his memory. Sacrifice activities are not just family affairs for the families of Nanjing Massacre victims; more importantly, they are meant to raise the public’s awareness of remembering history and cherishing peace, Yu Huiru said.

Ge Fengjin and Ge Fengliang are also inheritors of the memory of the Nanjing Massacre. Their father Ge Daorong, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, passed away this January. During their father’s lifetime, they often accompanied him to events such as assemblies. At the ceremony, the brothers struggled to hold back the tears as they recalled the unfortunate experiences of their father and his family during the Nanjing Massacre. “Our father educated us about the importance of bearing the history in mind as the war brought much pain to him. In the future, we will continue to spread the history of the Nanjing Massacre so that more people will remember history and cherish peace,” they said.

"Only when we face up to history will we be able to appreciate what we have right now; only when we remember history can we create the future. Let us remember the history memory filled with blood and tears forever and pass on the longing for peace. We shall maintain and cherish peace, and shall never let the history tragedy repeat itself. This is the best way we can remember the innocent people who lost their lives in the slaughter," said Zhou Feng, director of the Memorial Hall

International students from countries like Russia, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Nigeria and Morocco had a face-to-face talk with the descendants of the survivors of the Nanjing Massacre. Despite coming from different countries, those teenagers have great empathy with each other, with an outpouring of grief over the history. “The massacre was outrageous. All the young people from across the world should learn about it at the Memorial Hall!” many of them agreed.