Located in the lower Yangtze River drainage basin and Yangtze River Delta economic zone, Nanjing has long been one of China's most important cities. It is recognized as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. It was the capital of Wu during the Three Kingdoms Period and the capital of the Republic of China prior to its flight to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. Nanjing is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in the People's Republic of China's administrative structure, enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of a province. Nanjing has long been a national centre of education, research, transport networks and tourism. The city will host the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics.
In 1937, Japan again invaded China, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War (often considered a theatre of World War II). Their troops occupied Nanjing in December and carried out the systematic and brutal Nanking massacre (the "Rape of Nanking"). The total death toll, including estimates made by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal, was between 300,000 and 350,000.[18] The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was built in 1985 to commemorate this event.
A few days before the fall of the city, the National Government of China was relocated to the southwestern city Chungking (now Chongqing) and resumed Chinese resistance. In 1940, a Japanese-collaborationist government known as the "Nanjing Regime" or "Nanjing Nationalist Government" led by Wang Jingwei was established in Nanjing as a rival to Chiang Kai-Shek's government in Chongqing. In 1946, after the Surrender of Japan, the KMT relocated its central government back to Nanjing.
A few days before the fall of the city, the National Government of China was relocated to the southwestern city Chungking (now Chongqing) and resumed Chinese resistance. In 1940, a Japanese-collaborationist government known as the "Nanjing Regime" or "Nanjing Nationalist Government" led by Wang Jingwei was established in Nanjing as a rival to Chiang Kai-Shek's government in Chongqing. In 1946, after the Surrender of Japan, the KMT relocated its central government back to Nanjing.
The Memorial for compatriots killed in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Forces of Aggression (simplified Chinese:侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆; traditional Chinese: 侵華日軍南京大屠殺遇難同胞紀念館; pinyin: Qīnhuà Rìjūn Nánjīng dàtúshā tóngbāo Jìniànguǎn) is the hall to memorialize the people killed in the Nanjing Massacre by the Imperial Japanese Armyin and around the then capital of China, Nanjing, after it fell on December 13, 1937. It is located in the southwestern corner ofNanjing known as Jiangdongmen, near a site where thousands of bodies were buried, called a "pit of ten thousand corpses" (simplified Chinese: 万人坑; traditional Chinese: 萬人坑; pinyin: wàn rén kēng).