Another Nanjing Massacre survivor dies, only 20 remain
A citizen pays floral tribute during a ceremony marking the 89th anniversary of the beginning of China's whole-nation resistance war against Japanese aggression at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, July 7, 2026. (Photo: Xinhua)
One more survivor of the Nanjing Massacre passed away on Wednesday, reducing the number of registered living survivors to 20, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders said.
Massacre survivor Guo Xiulan died at the age of 94, according to the memorial hall in Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.
Guo was born in 1932. According to survivor recollections documented by the museum, when the Nanjing Massacre took place after Japanese troops captured Nanjing on Dec. 13, 1937, Guo's parents took their three children to hide in an underground shelter along with neighbors.
"Japanese soldiers stood at the opening and strafed it with machine guns. My parents and my youngest sister perished. Only my second sister and I survived," Guo was recorded as saying.
The Nanjing Massacre unfolded over six weeks. Japanese soldiers killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in one of the most barbaric atrocities of World War II.
Over the years, the number of survivors able to share firsthand accounts of the massacre has continued to decline.
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 also preserved survivors' testimonies through written records and video recordings.
Documents related to the massacre were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2015. To date, only 20 living survivors of the Nanjing Massacre remain on the registry maintained by the Nanjing Association for Assistance to Victims of Japanese Aggression and Inheritance of Nanjing Massacre Historical Memory.