Nanjing Massacre National Memorial Day observed in HK

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying presents a wreath to mourn victims of the Nanjing Massacre during China's first National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims in Hong Kong, south China, Dec 13, 2014. (Xinhua/Liu Yun)

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on Saturday held a ceremony to mark China's first Nanjing Massacre National Memorial Day to memorialize victims slaughtered by Japanese aggressors in World War II.

Led by Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, about 100 people, including senior government officials, judicial officers, Legislative Council members and representatives of war veterans attended the ceremony.

Vice-Chairman of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Tung Chee-hwa and head of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong Zhang Xiaoming, as well as representatives from the People's Liberation Army Garrison in Hong Kong, were also among the attendees.

The ceremony commenced at 9:00 a.m. local time at Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense. All participants paid two-minute silent tribute before Leung laid a wreath to the massacre victims.

The participants then visited a photo exhibition of the Nanjing Massacre, which records the atrocities that Japanese aggressors committed against the Chinese people.

Lin Zhen, 79, who started fighting Japanese invaders as a soldier of the Hong Kong guerrilla at the age of nine, recalled the sufferings of Hong Kong people during the war.

"The same as Nanjing Massacre victims, many Hong Kong people were slaughtered by Japanese aggressors. We can feel their pains. We will never forget that part of history," she said.

"The ceremony is very meaningful. The young generation of Hong Kong can have a better understanding of the Nanjing Massacre," said Ng, a student from Hon Wah College.

"The past tells us how important we should cherish peace."

Japanese troops captured Nanjing, then China's capital, on Dec. 13, 1937 and more than 300,000 unarmed Chinese were murdered and about 20,000 women were raped within six weeks.

In February 2014, China's top legislature designated Dec. 13 as the National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims to mourn those killed by Japanese invaders, and to reveal war crimes committed by the Japanese.

The move was aimed at remembering the calamities the war caused for the Chinese people and people around the world, conveying the Chinese people's firm stance of resisting aggression and safeguarding human dignity and world peace, according to the decision passed by the top legislature.