Wednesday marks the fourth National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims, a day to mourn over 300,000 Chinese souls at the hands of Japanese invaders 80 years ago.
History cannot be changed.
Facts cannot be erased.
On April 26, 2014, Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark visited University of Chines Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and attended the foundation-building ceremony of the Sino-Danish Center. The next day, the queen visited the Nanjing Massacre Museum in Nanjing, she became the first head of the sate which has visited this museum.
Bernhard Arp Sindberg (19 February 1911——1983) also known as "Mr. Xin" or "Xinbo". The Greatest Dane, the shining Buddha or "our savior" was born in Aarhus, Denmark and went out into the world at age 17 and lived most of his life in the U.S. His urge to travel took him far around the world, particularly to China, where he was one of the few foreigners who witnessed the Nanjing Massacre. He behaved not passive to the atrocities and later, his pictures, letters and experiences, played a role in the understanding of the massacre. His very active efforts saved 6,000 Chinese from a cruel fate and he has been honored on several occasions. This later gave him the title: "a friend of China".
The Danish company F.L. Smidth was at that time, building a concrete factory in the Chinese capital, Nanjing, and wanted to protect their investment against the Japanese rampage, so they hired Bernhard as a guard. The job was dangerous, but very well paid. Bernard arrived in Nanjing on 2 December 1937 and met the only other foreigner in the factory, the German Karl Gunther. After only 11 days the troops arrived and the Japanese atrocities began. Bernhard went around in Nanjing and the surrounding area and documented with his camera, what happened. The evidence, faded black-and-white photos and his own comments thereto, is assembled in an album,which currently stands at a museum in Texas.