Nanjing Massacre encyclopaedia nearing completion

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. Preservation work of the first section of the Nanjing Massacre survivors' oral testimony has recently been completed. The compilation of the Encyclopaedia of the Nanjing Massacre is also expected to be published by the end of 2014.

After more than two years' discussion and research, the Encyclopaedia will be divided into three parts with more than eight thousand terms.

In chronological order, the Encyclopaedia will detail the history of before, during and after the massacre, including its impact today.

Zhu Chengshan, curator of Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, said,"We will give a comprehensive summary of the related peoples and incidents. It is a reference book but meanwhile it also draws a conclusion of the historical facts we have collected throughout the years."

In April this year, the memorial hall founded a research center collecting oral history from the survivors. The center has finished preserving the first group of survivors' oral testimony after half a year's efforts.

Fei Zhongxing, deputy director of Research Center Collecting Oral History from Survivors, said,"We had focused on the facts of the investigation during the massacre period. The history before and after the massacre, though we had also done some research, was not in detail. But in the past 6-months, we made them a focus."

Hundreds of specialists are taking part in editing the Encyclopaedia. One specialist said accounts of the Japanese embedded journalists will be included.

Jing Shenghong, history department, Nanjing Normal University, said,"Some of the embedded Japanese journalists were involved in the slaughter. They robbed and raped women."

There are now less than 200 survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, making the perservation of their oral testimony an urgent need.

Zhu Chengshan said,"It will be hard to find survivors in the next three to five years."

Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, then the capital of China, on December 13th, 1937 and began a six-week massacre. Records show that more than 300,000 people including unarmed soldiers and civilians were killed. Widespread rape and looting also occurred during the period.