French people call Nanjing Massacre 'painful and horrifying'

Chinese Ambassador to France Zhai Jun (right, first) and mayor of Caen France, Joel Bruneau (left, first), inaugurate the exhibition of historical facts about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in the Memorial de Caen museum on Saturday. [Photo by Fu Jing/chinadaily.com.cn]

Grimaldi said it is "a pity" that China's sacrifice and suffering has not been shown sufficiently in French history books. He held up a history book for French pupils at the press conference, saying more than 20 pages cover World War II, but only one page is dedicated to the Nanjing Massacre, without much about China's fight against Japan's aggression.

"We must cooperate with China to help our next generations to remember that human beings are easy to make severe mistakes," said Grimaldi, who was invited to attend the National Memorial Day events this year in China.

Grimaldi's suggestion was echoed by Zhang Jianjun, curator of the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing. The memorial hall has organized the French exhibition.

"It is very important for our young generations to remember the history, and we can deepen cooperation in organizing exhibitions, history education and joint research," said Zhang, who signed an agreement with Grimaldi prior to Saturday's opening of the exhibition.

One of the largest items on display in the exhibition is a 3.25 meters by 7.46 meters painting titled Deliverance by French painter Christian Poirot. The art depicts violent scenes of the Nanjing Massacre and was donated to Nanjing Memorial Hall in 2015.

Poirot recalled that during his stay in Hangzhou of Zhejiang province three years ago, life was peaceful and calm until one day, a TV news program reported that Japanese leaders showed respect to suspected war criminals.

"I felt extremely indignant about that since Chinese people always welcomed and treated me friendly,"he said.

"I decided to create a painting to call for memory of that significant history when Chinese victims suffered terribly in the massacre, and condemn the Japanese leaders honoring wars," he said.

The painting took Poirot six months to complete, as he read historical documents an hour a day. Now he is working on a second one, focusing of the abuse of "comfort women", which he expect will be displayed in Nanjing next year.

"Just as I added in the painting Deliverance with some white peace doves, I hope there will not be war anymore," he said.

"We aim to stop relaying hatred by remembering history," said Zhai Jun, Chinese ambassador to France, who attended the exhibition.