December 13, 2025

A ceremony was held at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing to remember those killed by Japanese aggressors during World War II on Saturday. 

At 10:01 am on a chilly Saturday, Nanjing paused once more. For one minute, air-raid sirens echoed across the city as pedestrians stopped, removed their hats, and bowed their heads in silence. The city began observances marking the National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims — observed each year on the anniversary of December 13, 1937, when Japanese troops captured Nanjing, then the capital of China.

What followed that day remains one of the darkest chapters of World War II. Over the ensuing six weeks, approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed in the massacre. Today, commemorative ceremonies unfolded across the city, from the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders to mass-burial memorial sites scattered throughout Nanjing, as the city remembered its dead and reflected on a history that must not be forgotten.

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