Eighty years ago on December 13, 1937, Japanese troops intruded into Nanjing and began a massacre which lasted for over 40 days. More than 300,000 Chinese unarmed soldiers and civilians were murdered during this period. On February 27, 2014, December 13 was designated as the national memorial day of the Nanjing Massacre victims in the form of legislation at the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress. After today’s memorial service, President Xi Jinping met with Nanjing Massacre survivors and relatives of foreign friends who helped China in its war of resistance against Japanese aggression. Xi shook hands with everyone and said that history, beautiful or disastrous, needs to be true. Past experience should be a guide for the future, he added.