A new book published in East China's Jiangsu Province has revealed details of the battle to defend Nanjing before the Japanese invaders occupied the city and perpetrated a massacre in late 1937.

The book, published by the Nanjing Press under the title of The Oral History of Veterans Participating in the Battle of Defending Nanjing, consists of verbal testimonies of 25 veterans who joined in the battle.

At present no more than one-third of the veterans of the battle are still alive, Zhang Lianhong, a professor at the Nanjing Normal University and one of the compilers of the book, said at a seminar in Nanjing, the provincial capital, on Sunday.

The front-line experiences of the soldiers are of great value in chronicling an intact historical account of the battle, Zhang said.

Wu Xianbin, another compiler of the book, said he had learned many unknown details of the battle through the history narrated by the veterans he interviewed.

"The veterans who have been through war long more for peace," said Wu, who is also the curator of a private museum in Nanjing commemorating the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

The battle to defend Nanjing, the then capital of China, started on December 1, 1937. After days of fighting, Japanese troops occupied the city and massacred over 300,000 Chinese.