Nanjing students are given textbooks on war

A textbook about the Nanjing Massacre is being distributed to primary and high school students in Nanjing to help young people understand what happened there during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

A version designed for the fifth grade has already been distributed, the government of Jiangsu province said. Two further editions, for the eighth and 11th grades, have been produced and will be distributed soon.

Students in the province's capital will study the book in the run-up to Dec 13, when the first national public memorial day for the massacre will be held.

There are plans to distribute the book beyond Nanjing to schools across the province.

Japanese troops slaughtered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers after occupying Nanjing, then the capital of China, on Dec 13, 1937.

The 55-page fifth grade edition, titled Memory of Blood and Fire, sets out the basic facts about the massacre and contains 10 stories of people who suffered during the war.

Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, said that unlike some countries, China does not educate its students sufficiently about tragic historical events.

"Students above the third grade in Israel are taught about the Holocaust," said Zhu. "More than 80 percent of the teachers there have been trained to teach its history, and more than 90 percent of Israeli students have a detailed knowledge of it."

Zhu, who has visited the Auschwitz museum in Poland three times and Israel's Holocaust memorial twice, said Israel arranges for students and researchers from around the world to visit the death camp in Poland every year.

"Though the Nanjing Massacre has been mentioned in Chinese textbooks since the 1950s, this is not enough. We have wanted to compile a detailed textbook for a long time."

In February, after China established the national public memorial day, Zhu recommended to education departments that a set of textbooks on the massacre should be published.

Zhao Ang, a student at Beijingdonglu Primary School in Nanjing, said he was moved by some of the stories in the book.

"I didn't know too much about the massacre before, but when I finished reading the textbook I knew that the Chinese suffered greatly during the war, and that some foreign friends offered help to civilians."

Wang Yun, a Nanjing resident and mother of a 9-year-old boy, said she hopes teachers can describe what happened without leaving children terrified by the cruelty of the massacre.

"I've been to Japan and I like the country," Wang said. "I hope learning history can make both countries remember what wars have cost and cherish peace more."

Wang Weixing, director of the history institute at the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said the facts in the book cannot be denied.

"We have solid evidence to support every story," said Wang. "We just need to pass on the facts to the students. The facts are the most powerful thing."