Zheng Jinyang, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, passed away on the night of April 11, 2023 at the age of 95.

Born in 1928 in Nanjing, Zheng lived at No. 49 Xinfuhe, the Gate of China when she was young. She lived with her parents, her grand-grandmother, her grandparents, her younger brother(s), as well as her aunt and her family who fled from Shandong to seek shelter. Zheng’s mother took care of the family while her father was a worker outside the Gate of China. The family lived a happy life.

Their happiness ended in August 1937 when Japanese military airplanes started bombing Nanjing. Air raid sirens were heard almost every day. “If the air raid sirens went off once, it meant the airplanes were coming; if they sounded twice, it meant everything was all right; but if they didn’t stop, that meant red alert. Sometimes we had to sleep in the bomb shelter at night,” Zheng once said.

According to Zheng, the bombing continued until December 13 when the city fell into silence all of a sudden, which unnerved people. After staying at home for a long time, her two younger cousins felt so bored that they went outside to play. Unfortunately, they ran into several Japanese soldiers. The soldiers raised them with their bayonet and killed them. Seeing that, their father tried to save them, but was shot to death. Zheng’s great-grandmother, who was more than 80 years old, was shot in the leg. Cotton wool was applied to the wound to stop the bleeding, but she passed away soon.

Even in such a tough environment, Zheng kept studying. In 1944, she graduated from Nanjing Normal College (today’s Nanjing Normal University) and became a teacher at a primary school near Xinjiekou. Later, she worked at Nanjing Diaoyutai Elementary School until 1985 when she retired.

In a media interview, Zheng expressed anger over the news that Japanese right-wing forces had denied the Nanjing Massacre. “I want to ask them: Were you in Nanjing in 1937? If you were not in Nanjing in 1937, you have no right to say that. How did my great-grandmother die? How did my two cousins die? They were only seven or eight years old. Do you think the fact can be denied if you say it’s not true? History is not made up by you!”