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Agony endures 75 years after Nanking Massacre

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Bronze sculptures depict victims of the Nanking Massacre at the Memorial Museum in Nanjing. Photo: AFP

Three quarters of a century after Japanese soldiers butchered her family and left her for dead, Xia Shuqin says she relives her terror with every denial that the Nanking Massacre ever happened.

As the Imperial Japanese Army entered China’s then capital city on December 13, 1937, Xia heard pounding at the door.

Within minutes, seven of her family lay dead, killed by invading troops on the first day of two months of slaughter, rape and destruction now known as the Nanking Massacre.

Part of the conflicts that led up to the second world war, it stands as the Japanese military’s worst atrocity and remains a bitter strain on the two countries’ relationship.

Xia’s father was shot as he opened the door, before the troops dragged her mother from under a table, still clutching Xia’s one-year-old sister.

Both were bayoneted to death – but not before Xia’s mother was gang-raped.

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