BEIJING, Aug. 13 -- A group of former Japanese Imperial Army soldiers have returned to the site of an infamous massacre to issue apologies to their victims' relatives. The soldiers have gathered in the central Chinese city of Nanjing, better known by its wartime name of Nanking, for an historic conference addressing the first mass slaughter of World War II.
Organized by Nanking Massacre scholar Shi Young, the forum brings together soldiers, historians, scholars and survivors at the Nanking Massacre Memorial Museum for three days of discussions on the sensitive topic. More than 300,000 Chinese were killed or raped in the weeks following the fall of Nanjing to the Japanese in late 1937. The scope of the massacre stunned even the Japanese high command, which clamped a lid of secrecy so tight that even today scholars cannot agree on the death toll. U.S.-based historian Shi Young believes the conference will help survivors come to terms with the horror and stir international concern about the event. Shi adds the meeting will conclude with the lighting of an eternal flame in memory of the victims and a call for Chinese and Japanese youths to visit survivors of the massacre to remind the world of the horrors of war. ---
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