CRI听力:"Survivor Testimony" for the Nanjing Massacre5: Yi Lanying

Tomorrow, December 13th, is going to mark China's first-ever National Memorial Day for the Nanjing Massacre.

Today, we conclude our series of reports, bringing you the stories of some of those people who managed to survive the massacre by the Japanese army.

"At the time, I was 12 years old. I was sitting on the street selling peanuts when a Japanese military officer riding a horse came by with a few soldiers behind him. He got off the horse and slapped me. He hit me so hard that it made my ear bleed. Despite the pain, I didn't yell, cry or make any noise. The blow also knocked out some of my teeth and left me deaf in that ear."

This is Yi Lanying.

The vicious blow by the Japanese officer on that day 87-years ago has left her deaf in one-ear ever since.

After being slapped by the soldier, Yi and her family decided to flee to the refugee area along Shanghai road in Nanjing.

But she says even there, they weren't safe.

"Seeing any door that wasn't closed, Japanese soldiers would break in, drag young people out on the streets. Hours later, the sound of machine guns began to ring out everywhere."

To avoid being raped and abused by the Japanese soldiers, Yi's sister and sister-in-law decided to take refuge in the nearby Jinling Women's University, which was run at the time by an American church.

The women's university in Nanjing has since become famous through a pair of films which have since documented the Nanjing Massacre.

The university sheltered tens-of-thousands of women and children over the 6-weeks of the Nanjing Massacre.

At the time, it was one of just a handful of safe zones in the city.

But as the films have depicted, the University eventually became a target for Japanese soldiers looking for women and girls to rape.

Yi Lanying says the people in-charge of the University was left with difficult choices when the Japanese soldiers forced their way in.

"The director said, 'if you want others to live, some will need to go with the Japanese soldiers.' Several girls voluntarily left with the Japanese soldiers. After that, the Japanese soldiers didn't harass us anymore."

Estimates are that at least 20-thousand women were raped, and around 300-thousand killed during the 6-week rampage, which began on December 13th, 1937.