The Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders recognized six new "Nanjing Massacre Historical Memory Inheritors" on August 15, including descendants of a foreign missionary and an international humanitarian for the first time.
Among those recognized are Megan Brady, great-granddaughter of American missionary doctor Richard Freeman Brady, and Thomas Rabe, grandson of German businessman John Rabe. Both of them played critical roles during the 1937–1938 atrocity, which killed more than 300,000 people by the Japanese army in more than a month: Brady through his medical service at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital and Rabe through his leadership in the Nanjing Safety Zone.
Richard Freeman Brady (1902–1995), also known in China as Pei Ruide, was dispatched by the United Christian Missionary Society to Nanjing in 1931 to serve as a surgeon at the Drum Tower Hospital, then part of Ginling University. When his daughter fell sick, he briefly left the city in December 1937 but returned in February 1938 with Japanese approval, making him one of the first Westerners allowed back after the city's fall. Brady continued treating wounded civilians and refugees under dire wartime conditions. His diaries, photographs, and letters also documented the atrocities committed by the Japanese army.
Megan Brady has carried forward her family's bond with Nanjing. In 2019, she performed Mercy, a song she composed, at the International Memorial Day. The piece was inspired by the work of Minnie Vautrin. "I seemed to see the faces of the people inside Ginling College – those children and women. This song is my humble attempt to convey what they felt at the time," Megan said.
John Rabe, often remembered as the "Oskar Schindler of China," organized the Nanjing Safety Zone together with other international residents, providing refuge for more than 200,000 Chinese civilians. His grandson, Thomas Rabe, now an honorary professor at Heidelberg University, has worked extensively to preserve and publish his grandfather's diaries. He has also written books such as Rabe and China and plans to adapt the story into children's literature and documentaries to reach broader audiences.
With this fourth round of certifications, the number of inheritors has risen to 38. The other four inheritors are Zhang Qing, great-granddaughter of Chinese Safety Zone staff member Xu Chuanyin; Wu Jianqi, daughter of Wu Xuan, the Chinese photographer who preserved the historic "Jing No. 1" photo evidence; and survivor descendants Jiang Wei and Hu Jingya.
