Survivor of 1937 massacre by Japanese found in NZ

Chinese officials marking the 68th anniversary of the Second Sino-Japanese war say they have found in New Zealand the first overseas survivor of the massacre that started the war.

Japanese troops used a pretext to clash with the Chinese at a bridge near Beijing on July 7, 1937, and used that as an excuse for a full-scale invasion of China.

Li Daokui, 73, now living in Auckland, wrote to a Chinese historian last month recalling the experience his family endured during the Japanese incursion, the Jiangsu-based Modern Express newspaper reports.

"It's the first time we have found survivors outside China," said the historian, Zhu Chengshan.

He has since found another survivor outside China: Lu Anli, 85, who is living in Spain.

The historian said it was likely there were at least 400 survivors of the Japanese attack still alive, but most of them were in China.

Li Daokui, then aged five, said his grandmother was killed by Japanese soldiers, his aunt raped, and his mother suffered mental trauma.

"Their memories are the best evidence for the Japanese invaders' brutality," said Mr Zhu.

By December 1937, the Japanese army had taken the city of Nanjing, and a six-week massacre followed. About 300,000 people, mostly civilians, were slaughtered.

Lu Anli, then 17, escaped to a refugee camp set up by foreigners in the city, but witnessed Japanese troops engaged in systematic killing, burning and raping.

- NZPA