Memorial for the Nanjing Massacre

In 1945, China was a nation of victims and survivors after enduring fourteen years of conflict and brutal occupation, 20 million deaths, and massive destruction. The "Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders," more simply known as "The Nanjing Massacre Memorial," commemorates one of the most significant of these tragedies.

China endured many atrocities at the hands of the Japanese, but the Nanjing Massacre stood out for its length, sheer brutality, and coverage in the international press. For six weeks, Japanese soldiers killed between 175,000 and 300,000 people, raped tens of thousands and committed acts of the most unspeakable savagery against women, men, and children. After almost four decades of silence, in 1985, the Chinese government opened the "Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders," also referred to as the "Nanjing Massacre Memorial." Over time, this memorial became the vehicle for China to claim its often overlooked role in World War II. With a platform of global power, China could finally challenge Japanese authority in the region. The Memorial also became a vehicle for developing nationalism among its disaffected youth and incidentally provided a memory space to heal the deep wounds of the war period.

The original museum was the vision of established architect Qi Kang who had been a young boy in Nanjing. While some claim that Japan's 1982 text-book revisions denying atrocities stoked public demand for the memorial, leader Deng Xiaoping said both the leadership and the people pushed for the memorial's existence. The site was known as the Mass Grave of 10,000 Corpses in Jiangdongmen, a residential area on the city's south edge. Urban Nanjing was pushing outward with massive development that already had destroyed many significant historical locations related to the massacre.

Designed to be an authentic memory site, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial uses affect to tell the story. Qi wanted it to feel like a tomb. Much of the original site used cinderblock materials and grey color for a somber effect. One walked down into the partially underground main exhibit hall, furthering the sense of death and burial.

The museum opened on August 15, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the Japanese surrender. It featured a plain stone cross-shaped monument with the dates of the massacre period, the sculpture "Catastrophe in an Ancient City," a mourning wall, graveyard grounds, and a small main exhibition hall shaped like a coffin.

The most significant detail is the number 300,000, China's claim of the number of dead, appearing throughout the site. This number is a touchstone for the Chinese and a contention point for others. Japanese estimates for deaths range from 50 (by deniers) to the full 300,000 (by apologists). Other foreign experts suggest a more accurate number is between 170,000 and 250,000, depending on whom, where, and what time frame one counts. However, the 300,000 figure remains steadfast for the Chinese. It is memorable and originated in 1947 at a war crimes trial. Interesting to note that this is more than the 290,000 killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Three major expansions have taken place. In 1995, an L-shaped entranceway enhanced the southern-facing gate. Large bronze sculptures were also added during this time, oversized and graphic. Every statue represents a tragedy - a mother holding a dead child, a woman seeking her child, a family as they are separated, a pile of bodies with a woman's clothes torn, and a man carrying the corpse of his assaulted wife.

In the same expansion, the memorial hall increased in size to make room for many additional donated and acquired objects, photographs, and documents. Marble panels were also added, etched with the names of some of the victims. Finally, the site added an open gravel-covered field with sparsely planted dead trees to symbolize barrenness and death. In 2001, the sculpture "the Footprints of Witnesses to History" showcased the bronzed footprints of the 222 living survivors of the massacre. In contrast to the grotesque statuary and bone pits, a temple Peace Bell and a marble wall with a long narrative poem entitled "Wild Snow" etched in bronze promoted peace and reflection.

Until 2007, the memorial site was subdued, with no grand structures. At this time, the site received an upgrade per Qi Kang's proposal and potentially in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics. The size was expanded from 50,000 to 75,000 square meters, adding a mammoth pyramid-shaped exhibition hall, a new entranceway, a large green space, and a peace garden. The installation of a 30-meter statue of a woman dominated the site. In addition, a 12-second clock in the photo exhibit illustrated that a death occurred every 12 seconds. Most moving are the mass burial pits discovered in 1998. These became incorporated into the design, so the bones of some victims were displayed in their resting place. The new structure is now visible from the road, making it a much more dominant feature in Nanjing.

Unveiled in 2015 was a massive new hall. This addition radically expanded the museum's narrative. All previous displays emphasized the stories of the civilian victims, barely noting that thousands of those victims were Chinese soldiers. As the Japanese assert, some were probably killed in battle or discovered in civilian clothes. But there is substantial evidence that thousands of surrendered POWs were massacred in several large-scale actions. In the most recent addition, the stories of Chinese soldiers, foreigners, and even Japanese find representation, vastly expanding the museum's narrative. According to curator Zhu Chengshan, "Previously, our exhibition focused on truth and evidence. In the new hall, we would like to tell everyone about our victory."

On December 13, 2014, the Chinese government observed the first annual National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims, including a national minute of silence, similar to Yom HaShoah in Israel. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial site now hosts this somber national memorial service annually. To understand the significance, this Memorial Day is one of only three government holidays in China. The other two are National Day and Labor Day (all other holidays are traditional cultural days like the Spring and Autumn festivals and the Lunar New Year). After so many years of silence, why did the Chinese government change its focus on the Nanjing Massacre?

First, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial helped the country establish a new focal point during a time of rapid change. As Deng Xiaoping began economic reforms in 1979, class struggle no longer resonated as a unifying theme, and he sought a focus on national pride. Where Mao had felt that China's victimhood would show weakness, Deng portrayed China's war victimization by Japan as suffering and sacrifice but without weakness. After the youth protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, President Jiang Zemin and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) capitalized on the emotional pull of the massacre. Most significantly, the story galvanized the disaffected young, many of whom had little sense of a national identity nor of China's national history before 1949. Qian claims the current generation of young people in China appears to have become even more emotional about Japan's refusal to acknowledge war actions than the previous generation. This claim could support the theories of Ian Buruma, who contends that the generation that experiences atrocities often wants to forget, but a generation removed from the suffering will be more vocal, exhibiting what Buruma calls the "pseudo-religion of victimhood."

Second, internationally through the Nanjing Memorial, China finally claimed its role in the defining event of the 20th century, World War II. At the same time, it rehabilitated Chiang Kai-Shek and his Kuomintang armies to highlight the unified effort. In its refined war historiography, China found vicious abuse by an imperialist Japan. However, the Chinese people rallied and fought with the Allies to defeat imperialism and fascism. In this narrative, China's sacrifice and actions position the nation as a regional and world leader, consummate with its economic power. To emphasize the length of its participation in the fighting, the Chinese government officially altered the dates of the war, changing the start from 1937 to 1931. This new date is in all texts and news reports. The 1997 publication of Iris Chiang's "The Rape of Nanjing" brought international attention to China's experience in enduring the horrors of fascism, even connecting the Nanjing Memorial to Holocaust studies through programming with Yad Vashem.

Third, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial opened a new narrative for China's relationship with Japan. Despite the country's size and new economic strength, it still feared rising Japanese militarism and its regional influence. Because there are no "both sides" to an event as horrific as the Nanjing Massacre, it helps ensure that world opinion stands with China. Despite the horrors of Nanjing, the memorial speaker calls for peace in the region each year, showing "Chinese virtue in the face of Japanese savagery." In this narrative, Japanese deniers claiming the Nanjing "incident" was the fault of plain-clothed Chinese soldiers and Chiang's treachery are viewed as against peace. China chides, "If the Japanese were like the Germans, would I still have to write?" meaning that Japan also should be expected to acknowledge their wartime atrocities.

The last role of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial is as a lieux de memoire, a place of memory for people of the country who lost so much in World War II in terms of soldiers, civilians, and destruction. Large swaths of the country fell under brutal occupation; millions of other families became internal refugees. Nanjing was possibly the largest atrocity in World War II China, but many still claim there were worse, particularly in North China. The tens of thousands of dead slave laborers in the Datong Mass Grave Memorial and the numerous research compounds like Unit 731 have memorials. None exist for 250,000 civilians killed in the Zhejiang Reprisal Campaign following the Doolittle raid, except in the memories of the families.

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial is the "reification" of Chinese war trauma, giving their silenced past shape and voice. Sadly, most Chinese who lived through the horrors of the war and its aftermath passed away without a place to hold their memories. The museum documents their passing. In 2002, there were only 222 registered survivors of the Nanjing Massacre. By 2013 there were 100 living survivors; their pictures remain ensconced on a lighted wall. The light behind each image goes dark when the person dies. At the 2020 National Memorial Day, there were only ten chairs for survivors.

(edited by Laura Bailey)

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