Three thousand candles were lit in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu province, on Monday evening to commemorate the victims of the Japanese massacre in the city.

Hundreds of Nanjing citizens and friends from Japan gathered on the square of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders to mark the 74th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, which falls on Tuesday.

They lit the candles as Chinese and Japanese monks attending the ceremony prayed for perpetual peace.

This is the third such memorial held in Nanjing, a city that was occupied on December 13, 1937, by Japanese troops who began a six-week massacre. Records show more than 300,000 Chinese unarmed soldiers and civilians were killed.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2011)