Students and soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army gathered at a state memorial ceremony on Wednesday to commemorate the victims of the Nanjing Massacre. As has been customary for a few years now, white doves were released over the grounds of the Nanjing Memorial Hall. The war crimes began on December 13, 1937, following the occupation of the city by troops of the Imperial Japanese Army. Between 200,000 and 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war lost their lives at the time. The memory of the atrocities is now part of patriotic education in China and an open wound in relations with Japan.