南京大屠杀死难者公祭仪式于南京举行

China will hold an annual memorial for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre today in the eastern city.

今天，我国将在东部城市为南京大屠杀中的死难者举行年度公祭仪式。

Leaders of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the central government will attend the ceremony at a square in front of the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

党和国家领导人将出席在纪念馆前的集会广场举行的为南京大屠杀中死难者公祭仪式。

In February 2014, China’s top legislature designated December 13 as a national memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

2014年2月，全国人大常委会将12月13日设立为南京大屠杀死难者国家公祭日。

On December 13, 1937, Nanjing - then China’s capital - fell to Japanese invaders who went on a more than monthlong slaughter of civilians.

1937年12月13日，当时中国的首都南京陷落于日本侵略者之手，他们对平民进行了一场长达一个多月的屠杀。

About 300,000 Chinese were killed, and 20,000 women raped.

大约三十万中国人遇难，二万妇女遭强奸。

Eighty years later, survivors of the massacre, who were mostly children when the Japanese invaders captured Nanjing, are in their twilight years and number less than 100. Chinese historians are racing against time to document their recollections, before the stories fade into oblivion with their passing.

八十年后，大屠杀发生时大部分都只是小孩子的南京大屠杀幸存者的数量已不到一百且都是暮年老人。中国历史工作者正在与时间赛跑，在这段历史随着老人们的去世而逐渐被遗忘之前将其记录下来。

“A sense of urgency keeps stinging me,” said Zhang Jianjun, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆馆长张建军说:"紧迫感在督促着我"。

In September last year, he launched an oral history project in collaboration with local historians to document the accounts of the last group of survivors.

从去年九月开始，他与当地历史工作人员一起发起了一项口述历史计划，去记录最后一批幸存者的历史事件。

“We were saddened by the news as one survivor after another passed away,” said Gao Xudong, a junior at Nanjing University who participated in the project.

参加此计划的南京大学大三学生高旭东说，“一名又一名幸存者的离世令我们痛心不已。”

“They are part of the city’s history and we have the obligation to keep their memories alive.”

“他们是这个城市历史的一部分，我们有责任让他们的记忆永远留存下去。”

This month, two books were published: one collecting testimonies of 49 survivors to the atrocities and the other detailing their lives thereafter. They were based on transcripts of the survivors’ accounts, totally 1.2 million words, documented by more than 50 participants who spent nearly six months conducting more than 150 interviews.

此月有两本书已出版:其中一本记录了49名幸存者对小日本暴行的证词，另外一本则详细描述了他们遭受劫难后的生活。这两本书都基于采访幸存者的记录，共120万字，由超过50名人员花费近6个月进行150多次采访而成。

In addition to blow-by-blow accounts of the massacre, the books also details how the survivors painstakingly tried to heal their wounds, and how they managed to lead a normal life over the past 80 years, offering a wider and more personal perspective to one of the most barbaric episodes of World War II.

除了对大屠杀原原本本的叙述，该书还详细记述了幸存者如何艰难地治愈他们的创伤，他们在过去的80年内如何设法过一种正常的生活。这对于第二次世界大战最残暴的一段时间提供了更为广泛、个人化的视角。