Teenager donates proof of Japanese war crimes at Nanjing Massacre

A Chinese high-school student from Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province donated two key historical relics to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders on Friday, according to a report from CCTV News.

Both items donated by the 15-year-old named Yu Ningpeng are believed by the Nanjing-based Memorial Hall to be powerful evidence of Japan's aggression against China in the 1930s, boasting significant historical value.

One of the items is a battlefield letter sent by a Japanese lieutenant named Yamakawa Yoshihito to Yamakawa Tokutaro in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, on December 18, 1937. The front of the letter bears a postmark reading "Commemorating the Fall of Nanjing," and the letter reads: "... Our destination, the capital Nanjing, was finally captured by us on the 13th. A grand military commander's entry ceremony was held on the 17th, and we were reviewed..."

According to research by experts at the memorial hall, two other Japanese soldiers from the same battalion as the Japanese lieutenant Yamakawa have been confirmed to have participated in the Nanjing Massacre.

The other one is an album from the Japanese military's Hanami Unit, containing 44 precious photos that focus on the establishment of a field hospital in Tianjin by a unit of the North China Area Army of the Imperial Japanese Army. The photos clearly capture the layout of the hospital's laboratory, supply room, and wards, as well as the medical activities of Japanese soldiers and the conditions of the hospital staff.

"Patriotism is never just a slogan, and it must be translated into concrete actions. History is hidden in old objects, and we need to approach and understand them," Yu Ningpeng said in an interview with CCTV News.

Yu believed, collecting and donating these cultural relics was his practical way of safeguarding the historical truth.