On World Book Day this year, the Memorial Hall invited Jiang Liangqin, a professor at Nanjing University, to give a lecture about Robert Wilson at the Zijin Cao Peace Lecture. The lecture was attended by students, teachers, visitors and historians. They learned about the righteous acts of Dr Wilson and drew strength from the reading experience.

Wilson had a special connection to Nanjing among the westerns who stayed in Nanjing when the Nanjing Massacre took place. Although he was American, he was born in Nanjing and spent his childhood and teen years there.

Living in Nanjing for 16 years from 1906 to 1922, Wilson spoke fluent Chinese. He was a student of Pearl Buck when he was a teenager. Thanks to support from his family and the sound education environment in Nanjing, he received a good education.

In 1923, 17-year-old Wilson left Nanjing and studied at the Princeton University in the US. Later he was enrolled at Harvard Medical School, obtaining a doctoral degree in medicine in 1929.

A group photo of Wilson (first from right) and his classmates

In January 1936, Wilson returned to Nanjing and became a surgeon at Drum Tower Hospital. For Wilson and his wife, the first two years of life after he returned to Nanjing might be the happiest days during their life. However, the onset of war destroyed that peace. The doctor who saw Chinese people as his compatriots chose without hesitation to stay in Nanjing and tide over the difficulties together with Nanjing residents. In October 1937, Wilson moved into the house of John Lossing Buck, a professor at Jinling University (today known as Pearl Buck Memorial House in Nanjing University) at No. 9 Pingcang Lane.

A photo of Wilson and his wife

After the fall of Nanjing, Wilson was the only surgeon in the city. One can easily imagine how much pressure he came under when the number of patients continued to increase. He performed 11 surgeries on December 14, 1937 alone. The number of patients reached 150 on December 18 and even up to 175 at a time. Due to manpower shortage, Wilson also worked as gynecologist and obstetrician.

A photo of Doctor Wilson saving survivor Li Xiuying

To complete surgeries, he even injected hormone into his body himself with a syringe. While his body was on overload, he was also under enormous psychological pressure all the time. To protect Nanjing residents, he sometimes had to risk his life. “At noon today, I was almost hit by a bullet …” he wrote in his diary.

Due to long-term overwork and mental stress, Wilson’s body budget was seriously overdrawn, and he lived with the pain from disease for the rest of his life.

In the post-war Tokyo Trial, Wilson was the first to appear as a witness of the Nanjing Massacre committed by the Japanese troops.