Nanjing hall to reopen today

THE remains of the victims of the Nanjing Massacre have been well preserved in the original ruin sites, which have been housed in the new Nanjing Massacre Memorial, according to its curator.

"The remains will be exhibited in the Memorial, which is scheduled to reopen on Thursday (today) to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre, after two years of construction to extend the museum," said Zhu Chengshan.

"All 227 bodily remains have been treated with state-of-the-art preservation technology, and they remain intact in the original state as when they were first found," he said.

The memorial hall, built on the site of Wanrenkeng, or the Pit of 10,000 Corpses, is located near Jiangdong Gate in the southeastern part of the Jiangsu Province capital. It is the site where thousands of victims were slain and buried in December 1937, when Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, according to historical records.

Japanese troops occupied Nanjing on December 13, 1937, and began six weeks of destruction, pillage, rape and slaughter. Historical records show that more than 300,000 Chinese were killed.

There have been three discoveries of bodily remains in the area, which took place during the construction of the memorial, since the 1980s.

"The three ruin remains, now preserved under the roof of the memorial, are the most valuable relics here. They serve as the stark evidence of Japanese atrocities in China, which can invalidate any fallacy to falsify this part of history," said Zhu.

The latest find of 19 bodily remains was on April 21 last year at the construction site of the extension project, which started in December 2005.

Source: China Daily