One old soldier is still fighting, but this time his enemy is the passing of time and fading memories as he tries to make sure that events that occurred in Nanjing 75 years ago never escape public attention.

Then a teenager, Li Gaoshan, 88, fought, and was captured by, the Japanese during the Nanjing Massacre, and he is determined that the events that took place between December 1937 and March 1938 will never fade from memory. More than 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed.

Soldiers carry a wreath during a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre on Thursday in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. [Photo/Agencies]

Li, one of three soldiers still alive who survived the massacre, works as a volunteer at the memorial hall dedicated to the massacre.

He goes to the hall every Friday to share his experience with visitors.

"I have outlived many people I knew," said Li on Thursday, the massacre's 75th anniversary.

"I want to carry on and serve as a witness, since Japan's right-wingers haven't changed their attitude.

"My testimony is more powerful while I'm still alive," Li said.

Fewer than 200 survivors of the massacre are still alive, according to Zhu Chengshan, director of the memorial hall.

"At the beginning of 2011 the number was still over 300," Zhu said. Documenting their memories is important, he said.

Li was only 13 when the Japanese army overran Nanjing in 1937. He was captured but survived what was meant to be his execution when the Japanese raked the building the prisoners were being held in with machine-gun fire.

"I climbed out from a heap of bodies and then hid on the roof of the building for several days. I had no food or water."

Li went to Japan in 1996 to share his testimony and has worked for the memorial hall as a volunteer since 2004.

Authorities in Nanjing have launched a number of surveys to record for posterity the harrowing accounts of the survivors.

The first survey, conducted in 1984 and 1985, found that 1,756 survivors were still living in the city. In 1997, however, more than 400 had died.

In 2007, another survey carried out by more than 14,700 college students in 15 of the city's districts and counties gathered key testimony and evidence from 5.7 million people.

The memorial hall has collected crucial evidence of more than 4,000 documents.

"Many of the survivors have spoken recently about their experience to us," said Zhu. "As time passes, their testimonies become more urgent."

Families of survivors are helping to record their accounts of the atrocity.

Sina Weibo confirmed on Thursday that there are seven verified micro blog accounts of survivors.

One of the survivors who opened a micro blog last December, Zhou Shaohua, passed away in April, leaving his wife to continue updating their account.

Gu Xiulan, 88, visited the memorial hall in a wheelchair on Thursday, accompanied by her son and daughter.

Gu's son, Long Jinyuan, said that his mother remembers and grieves for her slaughtered relatives and murdered father every day.

Gu was 13 when the Japanese took the city and her father was a farmer growing vegetables near the city's Beijingxi Road. A Japanese soldier killed him by crushing his chest with a rock.

Gu's older sister was pregnant. She fled in terror and died in a refugee center at Jinling Women's University.

"Both my sister and the baby died. Both of them," said Gu.

Xia Shuqin is also a survivor, and her story is one of those broadcast in the hall.

Xia, 83, won a lawsuit in Japan after suing two rightist historians in 2009.

In the case, the Japanese Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Shudo Higashinakano, an Asia University scholar, and Tendensha, a publishing house, and ordered them to pay a combined total of 4 million yen ($44,500) in damages to Xia.

In his book, Higashinakano defamed Xia by saying she was a false witness to the mass murder, and claimed that she was not featured in a documentary shot by John Magee. The book, published by Tendensha in 1998, was translated into English and Chinese and sold thousands of copies.

The court ruled that Xia's reputation had been damaged and that she had suffered psychological trauma. The verdict demanded an immediate end to the publishing of the books and the recall and destruction of all sold books.

Seven members of her family were killed by the Japanese army during the massacre. Xia, then 8, narrowly escaped death after she was stabbed three times. Of her family, only she and her 4-year-old sister survived the slaughter.

"I lived with the bodies of my family for 14 days before I dared to go out. My mother and my two sisters were raped and tortured before they were killed," Xia recalled.

Xia's story was also written in The Diaries of John Rabe, a collection of stories written by a German businessman who helped protect Chinese civilians during the massacre.

"I met Mr Rabe in the safety zone. He did not mind how dirty I was and held me in his arms. He even proposed adopting me when he was about to return to Germany, but my uncle refused, although my uncle's family could barely make ends meet," Xia said.

As an orphan, life was hard.

She helped her uncle sell vegetables and worked as a maid for a living.

In 1994, the mother of three became the first survivor to recount her experience in front of a Japanese audience at a peace rally organized by Japanese non-governmental organizations.

She has two daughters and one son and a grandchild. She thinks about her slaughtered family every day.

"I miss them, especially when festivals approach," said Xia.

"How wonderful it would be if they were still alive and with me.

"I stand as a witness of the Nanjing Massacre to remind future generations of the cruelty of war. The history should always be remembered and people should cherish peace."

Yu Changxiang, another survivor of the massacre, flew to Japan on Wednesday to start a seven-day visit.

"I'll tell them what I saw during the massacre," he said. "Whether they believe it or not, I will tell them what I experienced."

Contact the writers at cangwei@chinadaily.com.cn and songwenwei@chinadaily.com.cn

Xinhua and Cao Yin contributed to this story.