SHENYANG, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- A photograph recording a scene from the Nanjing Massacre has been unveiled in northeast China's Liaoning Province, providing fresh evidence of the notorious massacre committed by Japanese aggressors in 1937.
The scene recorded in the picture consists of bodies of seven victims lying in the mud among pieces of charred wood. Some of the bodies were scorched and twisted. The photo has a small label that reads "Nanjing" at the bottom.
It was found in an album formerly belonging to a Japanese soldier, whose identity was confirmed through cross-examination of pictures in the album and a stamp of his name, said Mao Wei, collector of the photograph and history enthusiast.
"Photographs of this kind are rare since the Japanese government strictly censored them during the war," said Zhang Jie, a researcher with the Liaoning Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
Wang Jianxue, deputy head of China Association of Historians Studying Modern Chinese Historical Materials, said the photo was a genuine record of the massacre judging from the location, items and the means of disposing bodies.
It is of great historical value in the research of the Nanjing Massacre, Wang added.
