Nanjing Massacre survivor passes away, only 56 still alive

Wu Jiying, a Nanjing Massacre survivor, passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 98.

Her death reduced the total number of registered survivors to 56, according to the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

The Nanjing Massacre occurred when Japanese troops captured the east China city on Dec. 13, 1937. Over six weeks, they killed about 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in one of the most savage episodes of World War II.

When she was only ten years old, Wu was sold to a family in Nanjing to be a maid by her debt-ridden father. She was stabbed by two Japanese soldiers in her right leg during the massacre. She eventually survived by feigning death among corpses in a house.

Wu was found by her father later and they returned to their hometown about 50 km away from Nanjing, where she got married and became a mother of six children.

In 2014, China's top legislature designated Dec. 13 as the national memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

The Chinese government has preserved the survivors' testimonies, recorded in written documents and video footage. These records of the massacre were listed by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Register in 2015.