BEIJING, Dec. 1 — The Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders held a press conference on newly acquired cultural relics and historical data on Nov. 30, 2022. A total of 453 pieces (sets) of important materials were collected from the memorial hall.

Cultural relics and historical documents newly collected in 2022, including photos, soldiers’ diaries and substantial objects, served to further confirm the atrocities committed by the Japanese invaders in China and to deepen public understanding of the nature of Japanese militaristic aggression. These important historical materials have high research value.It should be mentioned that Daito Satoshi, a Japanese friend, again collected 51 pieces (sets) of valuable historical materials in Japan in 2022, including the Battlefield Log of Jun Arai, a Japanese soldier and invader in China, the Battlefield Log of the 11th squadron of the 36th infantry company of the Japanese army’s 9th division invading China, relevant photos of the Japanese army’s Ei 1644 unit invading China and charades cards on the theme of the Nanjing massacre. “More than 60 photos concerning Unit Ei 1644, a unit specializing in bacteriological warfare installed in the city of Nanjing during the Japanese invasion from China in 1939, were collected this time, filling the gap in historical data and corroborating exhibits found in Nanjing in 1998 such as skulls of victims subjected to bacterial testing. bacterial warfare study,” said Meng Guoxiang, a professor at Nanjing Medical University and a researcher on the history of the Nanjing Massacre. According to Meng, although the Ei 1644 unit in Nanjing is as notorious as the 731 unit, there are few substantial documents or data left on the Ei 1644 unit, let alone photos, because these bacterial tests were carried out in utmost secrecy and almost all remaining relevant materials were destroyed by the Japanese military later.Ai Delin, Head of the Cultural Relics Department of the Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, said the new Battlefield Log of the 11th Squadron, 36th Infantry Company, 9th Division of the Japanese Army invading China, along with another Battlefield Log collected in Memorial Hall 2021, is a record of the same unit fighting at different times and locations, serving to more fully disclose the atrocious invasion of China by the Japanese military. Since its founding in the 1980s, the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invaders collected a total of 6,318 items of precious cultural relics in 1,216 sets, including 384 items of first-class cultural relics in 166 sets. The collection comes from different channels, including excavation, acquisition from the public, social donation, etc.