A local radio station said it began airing Monday testimonies from 30 Nanjing Massacre survivors to keep the memory of the past alive.

The program, Survivors' Testimonies, was co-produced by the Memorial Hall of Victims of the Nanjing Massacre and the Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation. The radio program comes nearly a month ahead of China's first National Memorial Day, which falls on December 13, the day the massacre occurred. The program was first broadcast in Nanjing and is scheduled to last 30 days with each day featuring a survivor's story.

Residents in East China's Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces as well as Shanghai will be able to listen to the program. East China was severely affected by the Japanese army's invasion during World War II.

The survivors who contributed their testimonies for the program include Xia Shuqin, whose family was slaughtered in the massacre, and Zha Fukui, who survived five stabs from Japanese soldiers. "Although it has been more than 70 years (since the day my family was slaughtered), I have never been able to forget what had happened," said 85-year-old Xia.

"Some Japanese right-wingers called me a fake witness, which only caused me more pain. What happened during the Nanjing Massacre was real and undeniable. I hope people today will not forget history or how much pain Japan's invasion had brought to this country and its people. (We should) cherish peace and oppose war," said Xia, who was also the first narrator in the 30-episode program.

Japanese troops killed more than 300,000 people on December 13, 1937 in Nanjing, the then China's capital. Fewer than 200 survivors are still alive. Since 1984, the Memorial has been gathering testimonies from more than 4,000 survivors, many of whom had already died.