In August 1937, Japanese invaders occupied Shanghai after they encountered with strong resistance from the Chinese army. After the vehement battle in the suburbs of the city, Japanese invaders broke through the defense of the Chinese army, and Nanjing, then the capital of China, fell into the hands of Japanese invaders on December 13 1937.

The city was immediately turned into an inferno on earth as the Japanese invaders carried out the organized, large-scale, demoniacal and barbarous mass massacre rarely seen in human history. According to statistics and careful research conducted after the war, more than 300,000 innocent Nanjing citizens and Chinese prisoners of war were slaughtered by the Japanese in various brutal and bloody ways.

Nanjing Memorial Hall of Compatriots Murdered in the Nanjing Massacre was first built in 1985 at one of the many memorial sites of Nanjing Massacre, Jiangdong Gate and was enlarged in 1995. The magnificent building and its surroundings created an ambience of condolence, solemnity and reflection.