Preface
Nanjing is one of the four ancient capitals of China, with 600,000 years of history of human civilization, nearly 2,500 years of history as a city and nearly 450 years of history as China's capital. It is called "capital of six dynasties" and "metropolitan of ten empires". It is one of the birthplaces where Chinese culture originated.
From Dec. 13, 1937, in six weeks, the Japanese army executed an extremely cruel and violent massacre of the Chinese people in the world-shocking Nanjing Massacre. In the massacre, Nanjing -- a famous historical and cultural city -- suffered an unprecedented horrible disaster.
To remember the history, show China's attitude on human rights and civilization, and express China's determination to maintain world peace, the day of Dec. 13 is designated as the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day and memorial activities are held on this day every year as decided by the 12th National People's Congress at its 7th meeting in February 2014.
To match the activities held on the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day, the Nanjing Bureau of Education, Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders and Nanjing Publishing Group organized experts and school teachers in compiling the Textbook on National Memorial of the Nanjing Massacre Victims, which contains Memories of Blood and Fire, Truth of History and Warning and Thoughts, for students of the primary, middle and high schools respectively.
The Memories of Blood contains: defense of the city, disaster strikes, glorious humanity, trial of justice, cherish peace and national memorial. It is edited in the order of historical development to objectively present the basic historic facts of the Nanjing Massacre in the way of presenting both typical examples and overall pictures. It combines descriptions and extended readings. Each story has its introduction, story, related stories and activity suggestion.
Students, after learning about the typical historical facts, will have a fairly complete knowledge about the Nanjing Massacre and acquire cognitional and emotional experience.
