A man looks at pictures of survivors of the Nanjing Massacre at the National Museum in Beijing yesterday. The exhibit features the 1937 atrocity committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The 20-day show started yesterday. — Xinhua

The footage of horrible scenes during the Nanjing Massacre, recorded by American priest Reverend John Magee in 1937, debuted at the National Museum in Beijing yesterday.
Bloody slaughter scenes, horror-struck baby faces and plaintive expressions of raped women from the documentary by Magee, who was in Nanjing when Japanese army looted the then national capital of China, left a shocking impression on the mind of Feng Lei, a student of the No. 161 High School in Beijing.
"I never imagined it would be so horrible, though I knew of the tragedy from our history books," said the boy.
"What people see here, however, is all history and truth," according to Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre. "No director and actor, no matter how talented they might be, can make such tangible products. And this is only a glimpse of history."
Magee's footage, 105 minutes in length, was clipped into a seven-minute documentary being shown at the 20-day exhibition, which opened yesterday.
The 16mm film is believed to be the only documentary about the horrible massacre.
The exhibition, themed on "patriotism, justice and peace" and sponsored by the provincial government of Jiangsu, is free to visitors.
It is being held to commemorate China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Japan surrendered unconditionally on August 15, 1945.
Invading Japanese troops occupied Nanjing on December 13, 1937, after fierce combat with the Chinese army, and then launched a six-week rampage. Historical records show that more than 300,000 Chinese people, not only disarmed soldiers but also civilians, were massacred.
Magee, an Episcopal pastor, was one of 22 Westerners in charge of the Nanjing International Safety Zone created after Nanjing was captured.
The footage, along with the cinematograph Magee used, was donated by his son to the victims' memorial hall in October 2002. "But it was not open to public until today," said Zhu yesterday.
The film also includes scenes of rescue and assistance efforts by the international safety zone.
Magee was awarded a badge and a certificate by the Chinese government in 1948 for his bravery in rescuing Chinese people. The certificate and the badge are among 600 pictures and 753 items on show at the exhibition.
It is the first time for so much tangible evidence of Japanese barbarity to be displayed, Zhu said, adding the exhibition marks the debut of more than 80 percent of the items.
Matsuoka Tamaki, a Japanese primary school teacher, contributed 60 items of relics to the exhibition, which she collected from retired Japanese soldiers who took part in the massacre.
A diary by a Japanese soldier who asked Tamaki to keep him anonymous has become an eye-catching item, Zhu said.
"My team would kill 200 people a day. When we captured too many people and had no time to kill them all, we would send them to other teams," the diary reads.
Zhu said that all the evidence provided by Tamaki is very precious.