China Commemorates End of World War II, Noting 340,000 Deaths in ‘Nanking Rape’
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PEKING — China on Wednesday marked the end of World War II by reminding the world that Japanese troops killed more people in Nanjing than died in the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
An article in the official People’s Daily said peace can be maintained only by keeping the Nanjing massacre and other lessons of history in mind. Japanese forces took Nanjing (Nanking), the former Chinese capital, on Dec 13, 1937, and immediately began a six-week orgy of killing, burning, looting and raping in which 340,000 people died, the paper said.
The paper said the only way to avoid a recurrence of such incidents is to keep alive the memory of the Rape of Nanking, as it was called. The war caused much hardship for both the Chinese and Japanese peoples, the paper said, and added:
“Friendly relations can only be developed on firm foundations if this is kept in mind.”
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