Suping Lu, a professor from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, published a book on Sunday about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, during which more than 300,000 Chinese people were killed.
Lu's book features the papers of four faculty members from the United States, Canada and China who worked at Ginling Women's College of Arts and Sciences in Nanjing between 1937 and 1938.
A ceremony was held in the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders on Sunday to mark the publishing of the book, days ahead of China's first National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims on Dec. 13.
These first-hand accounts, which contain letters, diary entries and memoirs, are seen as objective and reliable in revealing what took place during the Nanjing Massacre, which began on Dec. 13, 1937.
Japanese invaders captured Nanjing, China's capital at the time, and began a 40-odd-day-long massacre on Dec. 13, 1937. More than 300,000 Chinese people, both soldiers who had laid down their arms and civilians, were murdered, and more than 20,000 rape cases happened.