Nanjing Massacre Survivor Ruan Dingdong: The Name on the Wall of the Victims List Is Attached to My Life

　(Voice of Witness Immortality Inheritance) Nanjing Massacre Survivor Ruan Dingdong: This name on the wall of the list of victims has bound me all my life

Editor's note:

　　2022 is the 85th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.

The children who survived the catastrophe are now octogenarians.

Time has aged people's faces, but it will not change the historical truth and will not wear down people's courage.

This memory of the world, which bears the pain of the family and the loss of the nation, is being passed on from generation to generation, and the voice of justice and peace will grow stronger as time goes by.

　　Chinanews.com, Nanjing, December 6th. Title: Survivor Ruan Dingdong of the Nanjing Massacre: The name on the wall of the list of victims binds me all my life

　　Chinanews reporter Zhu Xiaoying

　　"Grandpa, I brought my wife and son to see you again." Standing in front of the Nanjing Massacre victim list wall at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, 86-year-old Nanjing Massacre survivor Ruan Dingdong held a branch of white chrysanthemum Raise it high, pointing to the name of Grandpa Ruan Jiatian.

　　On the wall of the list, 10,665 black names are densely engraved. They are the victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

There is a lot of white space on the gray walls, and the list is still being added.

One horizontal and one vertical, one stroke and one stroke... Behind these names are the painful past of thousands of families, and it is a memory that the Chinese nation cannot forget.

　　"It was my grandfather who protected me with his life." Ruan Dingdong recalled to a reporter from Chinanews.com. When the Japanese army invaded Nanjing in December 1937, his grandfather Ruan Jiatian's house in Shuiximen, Nanjing was bombed by Japanese planes, and the family of six fled to his hometown in Jiangbei. .

Grandpa walked slowly with him in his arms, and couldn't get on the boat with the whole family.

　　"When I fled to the Yanziji River, my grandfather was stabbed and seriously injured by the Japanese soldiers in order to protect me in his arms. At that time, my grandfather endured the severe pain and hugged me desperately to climb into a small boat. After crossing the Yangtze River, he couldn't hold on anymore. He fell by the river. Afterwards, he was brought back to his home in Liuhe by his family, and he died three days later at the age of 47," said the old man.

Ruan Dingdong and his son.

Photo by Yang Bo

　　This past has become the pain of the old man's life.

　　Ruan Dingdong clearly remembers that his grandson Ruan Jie's composition "My Grandpa" won the "Excellent Composition Award" at school when he was in elementary school.

That day, after returning home, his grandson happily read the award-winning composition to Ruan Dingdong.

As he listened, Ruan Dingdong burst into tears, "I miss my grandpa too."

　　"Although the memory is very painful, I must tell more people about my grandfather's experience." Ruan Dingdong made up his mind not to hide this past anymore.

He went to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invaders and told about his family's experience in the massacre of the city by the Japanese army in 1937.

　　After multiple researches by the museum, Ruan Dingdong was identified as a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre.

Ruan Jiatian's name was also engraved on the Nanjing Massacre Victims Wall in 2013.

　　During the family sacrificial ceremony on the Ching Ming Festival that year, 22 people from four generations of Ruan Dinh Dong's family gathered in front of the list wall.

"When we saw the name of 'Ruan Jiatian', we burst into tears. Finally, there is a place to formally pay homage to grandpa." The old man said with emotion.

　　Since then, Ruan Dingdong has lost count of how many times he brought his family to participate in testimony activities and peaceful assemblies.

After his grandson Ruan Jie graduated from university, he joined the Zijincao Volunteer Team of the memorial hall, telling the family's experience to domestic and foreign visitors.

　　He went to the riverside to retrace the escape route many times, and sent his grandson to attend peaceful rallies... Ruan Dingdong, who is already an octogenarian, has not stopped. He firmly believes that historical facts cannot be distorted, justice will not be late, and inheritance will not be absent.

　　After winter this year, Ruan Dingdong once again took his wife and son to the memorial hall to participate in family sacrifice activities.

Pointing to the names of his relatives with trembling wrinkled hands, he poured out the pain of 85 years between life and death.

　　What makes Ruan Dingdong sigh is, "In 2013, 'Ruan Jiatian' was the last name on the wall, and now it has been added a lot."

Although time is passing, more and more truths are being salvaged, and more and more victims of the Holocaust are engraved in history.

　　Bear the pain of memories over and over again, and continue to tell them over and over again.

"We survivors bear witness to the history of the Nanjing Massacre, hoping to remind people to learn from history and cherish peace," Ruan Dingdong said.

(Finish)