Photo: China News Service

The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders has received a donation of archive documents and other materials as part of a lawsuit against Japanese right-wingers from an attorney representing a survivor of the massacre, shedding new light on the atrocity.

The family of attorney Tan Zhen, who died of illness on June 12 at the age of 66, donated the materials related to the lawsuit and Tan's personal items to the memorial hall, including photos of the survivor Xia Shuqin in the lawsuit in Japan.

"The most precious thing is the group photo of the lawyers and staff members of the memorial hall who accompanied Xia to Japan to answer the lawsuit. Among the photos are business cards of Japanese friends. These provide a detailed description of the historical case," Zhang Jianjun, the curator of the memorial hall, was quoted by the Xinhua News agency as saying on Saturday night.

Zhang said the memorial hall would create a special document for Tan's donation.

According to reports, Xia was described as a "false witness" in two books published in 1998 by a professor at the Asia University in Japan and a member of association of Japan's historic view of liberalism. In 2000, Xia sued the two for reputation infringement. The Japanese professor filed a countersuit in a Tokyo court against Xia's lawsuit.

Tan then accompanied Xia to court in Japan with a Nanjing lawyer assistance group. When Xia stood in court, the professor withdrew the lawsuit, and Xia then filed a counterclaim.

From October 2000, the lawsuit lasted nine years and became known worldwide. In 2009, Japan's supreme court issued a final ruling in favor of Xia in her lawsuit against the author and publisher of the book entitled A Thorough Examination of the Nanjing Massacre thanks to the joint struggle by Tan, the lawyer assistance group and Japanese friendship personnel against the Japanese right-wingers.

Under Tan's promotion, the Nanjing Bar Association and Nanjing legal aid foundation jointly launched the "Lawyers alliance for safeguarding the historical truth of the Nanjing Massacre" in 2017, which is dedicated to protecting the rights and interests of survivors of the havoc, and promoting research into legal issues surrounding the massacre and related civil litigation.

"Lawyer Tan is a man who took on a historic responsibility for the memorial hall," Zhang said.

He noted that a few days ago, another Nanjing Massacre survivor died, leaving only 73 registered survivors, which again showed that the number of witnesses to a bloody chapter in history is declining.

The Nanjing Massacre, a six-week spree of mass murder and mass rape committed by the Japanese invaders, began on December 13, 1937.

Although the truth of the Nanjing Massacre has been proven through irrefutable evidence and accepted by Japanese and Western societies, it is still waiting for long overdue acknowledgement from some right-wing politicians in Japan.

Xia survived the massacre, as she passed out after being stabbed three times, but seven of her nine family members were brutally killed by the Japanese invaders, reports said.

From August 6 to 15, 1994, Xia,  who was 64 years old at the time, traveled to Japan to give her testimony, becoming the first survivor of the massacre to testify to the crimes committed by Japanese troops. 

Global Times