Leaders from Asian communities, representatives from the provincial government and opposition parties along with young people gathered at Queen’s Park to observe the 81st anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre on Thursday in Toronto.

By acknowledging that the Ontario Legislative Assembly has designated Dec 13 as the Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day every year, Joseph Wong, founder of Toronto ALPHA (Association for Learning and Preserving the History of World War II in Asia) said the day is a solemn one.

“It’s important to remember, but it’s more important to educate,” Wong said. “It’s important to ensure that younger generations understand the impact of this atrocity. We have launched seminars, workshops and conferences with schools almost every week through the year.”

Wong said the Asia Pacific Peace Museum and Education Centre is being built to offer a comprehensive history of the war in Asia.

Starting on Dec 13, 1937, the invading Japanese Army captured the city of Nanjing, then the capital of China. The lives of 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were brutally wiped out by the Japanese troops in the following six weeks, including an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 women and girls who were raped by the Japanese Army.

Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Nathalie Des Rosiers, who is also a lawyer and academic, said the massive violence, killings and sexual assaults have had a profound effect.

“The trauma is passed through generations. Families live with the remembrances. It is worse when the memories remain untold or silenced,” said Rosiers.

PC Party’s MPP Aris Babikian also agreed to take tangible steps to honor the victims and educate future generations, to prevent such atrocities from repeating.

“I have worked closely with the community to help sensitize the Canadian public and political figures about the Nanjing Massacre and other mass crimes in Asian history. I have also urged the perpetrators to atone for their crimes,” Babikian said.

Shirley Yamada, an advocate for social justice of Japanese descent, said the truth of the Nanjing Massacre becomes “knowledge”, and “must be disseminated widely.

“From the souls of 300,000 slaughtered, knowing they are vindicated now, knowing they will be remembered ... we can start here on the journey to peace via Nanjing,” Yamada told the gathering.

On Oct 26, 2017, the Ontario Legislature gave unanimous consent to MPP Soo Wong’s Motion 66, designating Dec 13 each year as Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day.

Meanwhile, by jointly hosting a public memorial event with the World War II Asian Memorial Museum of Canada and the World War II Asian Historical Research Institute of North America, the City Council of Markham also observed the first anniversary of the establishment of the Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day in Markham on Thursday.