Another Nanjing Massacre survivor dies, only 20 left from World War II atrocity

A survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, one of the worst atrocities of World War II, has died at the age of 94, bringing the number of registered living survivors down to 20, Xinhua reported, citing the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

Guo Xiulan died on Wednesday, the memorial hall in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, confirmed.

Born in 1932, Guo was a child when Japanese troops captured Nanjing on December 13, 1937, marking the beginning of the massacre.

According to her recollections preserved by the museum, her parents took their three children and hid with neighbours in an underground shelter.

Japanese soldiers opened fire at the shelter's entrance, Guo recalled in her recorded testimony.

"My parents and my youngest sister perished. Only my second sister and I survived," she said.

The Nanjing Massacre continued for six weeks, during which Japanese troops killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers.

The number of survivors able to provide firsthand accounts has dwindled over the decades, making the preservation of their testimonies increasingly important.

In 2014, China's top legislature designated December 13 as the national memorial day for the victims of the massacre. The Chinese government has also preserved survivors' accounts in written documents and video recordings.

Documents relating to the massacre were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2015.

The registry maintained by the Nanjing Association for Assistance to Victims of Japanese Aggression and Inheritance of Nanjing Massacre Historical Memory now lists only 20 living survivors.