Nanjing Massacre survivors visit Japan

Two elderly survivors of the Nanjing Massacre have left for Japan ahead of the remembrance day, to attend peace rallies and tell their stories of war to locals in several Japanese cities.

83-year-old Xia Shuqin started her 12-day trip in Japan a week ago. She met with local residents in Fukuoka on Sunday and will continue her tour in Tokyo, Kyoto, and several other cities.

Xia's trips to Japan began as early as 1994, when she went in August to testify in a peace rally against the Japanese Army's war crimes in Nanjing after they invaded on December 13th, 1937. She was the first survivor of the Massacre to attend the event.

Non-governmental organizations in Japan have been holding peace rallies ahead of the anniversary every year since. So far 45 survivors in China have been invited to speak.

The other elderly visitor, Yu Changxiang, left for Japan on Wednesday. He will spend a week holding talks with local people in cities including Fukuoka and Kumamoto.

Zhu Chengshan, curator of Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, said, "Survivors in China visit Japan and deliver speeches on their experiences. This is the best way to tell the locals there about what happened in Nanjing. Publication on the history of the Nanjing Massacre was far from enough in the past. So, we need to help more people in more places to discover the truth of the history."

Survivors have been fighting a long battle for recognition of the devastating invasion. In a Japanese court in 2007, Xia Shuqin successfully sued Professor Shudo Higashinakano from Tokyo's Asia University, and his publisher for claiming she was a fraud. She won compensation of 4.5 million yen, about 55 thousand US dollars.

In 1999, another survivor Li Xiuying, sued Toshio Matsumura, a Japanese right-wing writer for defamation in Tokyo. The writer called Li a "false" witness of the war in his book The Big Question in the Nanjing Massacre.

The court issued a guilty verdict in 2002 and awarded Li 1.5 million yen, about 18, 000 US dollars. Matsumura demanded appeal but was eventually rejected by the supreme court of Japan in 2005. Sadly, Li passed away on December 4, 2004, before she saw the outcome of her battle.