CRI听力:China holds memorial ceremony for Nanjing Massacre

Senior officials, members of the military, and average citizens have stood in tribute, observing a minute's silence at the Nanjing massacre memorial hall in the former Chinese capital.

Tuesday morning's ceremony also marks the 3rd anniversary of the Chinese government declaring December 13th as National Memorial Day.

Senior official Zhao Leji has delivered this year's keynote address, calling on people to remember history and cherish peace.

"We are here to cherish the memory of the revolutionary martyrs and national heroes who sacrificed their lives for the victory of the Chinese people's war of resistance against Japanese aggression. The Chinese people need to remember history, not forget the past, and cherish peace and create a peaceful future."

Among those taking part in Tuesday's ceremony is She Ziqing, one of a dwindling number of survivors of the Nanjing massacre.

"I think its important for me to help inform young people of the history, my experience, and the horror I had to witness when Japanese troops killed my mother. It's important we let people remember our history."

Japanese forces, frustrated by stiff resistance by Chinese troops during their invasion march toward the former Chinese capital, eventually overran Nanjing on December 13th, 1937.

This began a 6-week long orgy of murder and rape which left an estimated 300-thousand people dead, and as many as 30-thousand young girls and women raped by the occupying soldiers.

Survivor accounts, as well as foreign - and even Japanese newspaper reports - have detailed one of the worst atrocities committed against a civilian population by an occupying military force in the 20th century.

But even today, certian conservative elements in Japan still deny a massacre took place, or try to downscale the scope of the event.

Professor Hiroshi Tanaka with Hitotsubashi University in Japan has studied the Nanjing massacre.

"The Nanjing Massacre is a dark page in the history of Japan. So certian groups continue to want to erase it from our history. However, it is vain to cover up the history and facts. History follows the facts, just as if they had a pair of eyes. It's impossible to ignore it."

While a number of Japanese governments, including the current administration, have acknowleged the Nanjing massacre did take place, none have offered an official apology.

In October, Japan withheld its 2016 funding for UNESCO following its decision to include documents about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in its "Memory of the World" program.

Beyond Nanjing, other cities across China have also held events to pay tribute to the victims of the Nanjing Masscare.