In Nanjing’s Tragic History, Canadian Youth Find a Message of Peace

Content warning: This blog contains disturbing details of war crimes, including murder and sexual violence.

In May 2026, Amity Foundation organized an Young Envoys for Amity and Hope Programme to promote peace, understanding and friendship among young people around the world. Below is an excerpt from the Blog of Luke Doiron, a delegate of the programme of United Church of Canada

Luke Doiron is a member of Trinity-Clifton United Church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

This May, I and three other United Church youth traveled to China to take part in the Young Envoys for Amity and Hope (YEAH) program, organized by the Amity Foundation, a global partner of the United Church. The program promotes cooperation with international partners through youth exchanges focused on issues such as environmental awareness and peace advocacy.

On Friday, May 29, we visited three museums dedicated to presenting the tragic history of the Nanjing Massacre, which took place during the Japanese invasion of China in 1937–1938. During the invasion, Japanese forces occupied Nanjing and killed and assaulted both soldiers and civilians indiscriminately. Estimates suggest that more than 300,000 people in Nanjing were killed.

The day began with a visit to the John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall. John Rabe, an employee of Siemens who was working in Nanjing at the time, made it his mission to save as many innocent lives as possible when the invasion began. With the help of other foreigners, including missionaries, he established the Nanking Safety Zone. Because he was a member of the Nazi Party, the zone had a degree of recognition among the Japanese; our guide explained that a Nazi flag was used to help protect civilians in the zone from targeted bombing.

We then visited the Nanjing Lijixiang Comfort Station. These facilities were used by the Japanese military to confine women and girls in a system of sexual slavery for its soldiers. This was a deeply emotional and sorrowful visit that left all of the delegates, including myself, feeling drained. There was a statue called “Endless Tears” that, to me, captured the experience perfectly. It depicts the face of a victim who, no matter how many times her tears are wiped away, continues to cry. It symbolizes suffering that cannot easily be erased or fully healed.

A guided tour of the Nanjing Massacre Museum, with its account of the atrocities experienced by the people of Nanjing, was another difficult visit. One section included exposed mass grave sites, where we saw the bones of only a small fraction of those who died. We also learned about the brutal killing competitions in which Japanese soldiers participated, competing to see who could kill the most victims.

At the end of the day, we returned to the Amity office for a debriefing session. It was heartening to hear, after such a difficult day, the message that Nanjing has transformed the pain of its past into a commitment to hope and peace. While it would be understandable for its people to feel resentment, they choose to remember the past without allowing it to define the future. “To forgive, but never forget” Events like this, it was explained, must be remembered to ensure they are never repeated. This is true not only for Nanjing, but for the world as a whole.

Witnessing the unforgettable history preserved in these museums, and reflecting on the ideas expressed in these readings, we are reminded that war is never the answer and that peace must always be cherished and upheld.

—Luke Doiron is a member of Trinity-Clifton United Church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.