BEIJING - The third of an archival series on the Nanjing Massacre was released on Tuesday ahead of the inaugural National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims.

According to the diary of Cheng Ruifang, a then 62-year-old teacher in Nanjing's Ginling College, Japanese soldiers "killed and raped at will, regardless of the victims' ages."

"There were a mother and a daughter. The mother was 60-plus and used by three soldiers. The daughter, 40-something, was used by two. They were both widows. How inhuman!"

Cheng described the Japanese soldiers as "thieves who took whatever there was and left Nanjing an empty city."

"Some [Chinese] soldiers and civilians were bound and brought to the riverside. One by one, they were shot and fell into the river... Mr. Wei said there were no roads in the Xiaguan District and he walked on dead bodies."

In April, 1946, Cheng testified to Japanese soldiers' brutal acts at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Japan. Cheng's diary is now perserved in the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing.

Japan invaded northeast China in September 1931, followed by full-scale invasion that started on July 7, 1937. Around 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed or injured in the war against Japanese invasion that continued until 1945.

More episodes will be published in the week preceding National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims, on Dec 13.