A woman visits the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug 15, 2019.Photo:Xinhua

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) said it is absolutely important to understand history, but broadcasting the relevant clips was not mandatory, responding to a controversial incident that a local school has drawn complaints after it showed a Nanjing Massacre footage to elementary students, which reportedly scared some of them.

Teachers can use their professional judgment to vet teaching materials, Lam said at a press conference on Tuesday. 

There are various ways to teach history to students, depending on their age and absorption capacity of information, said Lam, noting that the autonomy on selecting educational materials was given to teachers and schools.

She stressed the importance to understand history, especially for Hong Kong residents. Without understanding history, it would be difficult to understand the importance and uniqueness of "one country, two systems," she said.

Lam's response came after a school played a five-minute documentary about the Nanjing Massacre to its elementary students last week ahead of the eighth National Memorial Day which fell on Monday for the more than 300,000 victims who were brutally killed by Japanese troops after the city of Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, was captured by Japanese invaders in 1937. 

A few students reportedly felt scared and cried in class after watching the video and some parents made complaints.

In response, the school said the video was played in the hope of letting students understand the importance of peace. It promised to pay extra attention to students' emotions and adjust teaching materials in accordance with the age of students. Also, it will provide a counseling session for students.

Schools should learn from this incident and pay attention to what materials they use to teach history to young students in the future, so as to achieve the goal of teaching history without causing anxiety to students, Lam said.

According to Hong Kong Orange News on Tuesday, an elementary student surnamed Mok wrote at Monday's counseling tutorial, "I felt bad because I don't know why the Japanese suddenly started killing Chinese people." Mok said writing helped ease her feelings.

Another elementary school student said he was not afraid because he knew this was history and would not happen now.

A parent of a student in grade 5 said her child did not overreact after watching the video. The parent noted that her son usually watched other war movies, such as those about the Vietnam War, which were more frightening.

The incident also made rounds on social media. Some netizens said it is understandable that parents worried about their children, and expressed support for the concept of teaching students in accordance with their age and capacity.

Many also suggested that the incident may also have something to do with Hong Kong's lack of history teaching experience. 

While the education methods can be improved, the general direction of educating Hong Kong students about the real history was right, said netizens.

"The 5-minute documentary does not contain any 'X-rated' images that are obviously inappropriate, and it is not more bloody and horrible than some films and games. It was uncommon that the footage scared individual students to cry," commented a netizen. "Some games or movies should be skipped, but important history should not be unknown. Let the students face the heavy history, just like letting the greenhouse flowers withstand the wind and rain, which is also the only way for them to grow stronger," the netizen noted.

"The war is bloody and cruel, and some history facts cannot be avoided," read another comment.

Hong Kong's national education has been lacking for a long time. The "de-Sinicization" of education has existed for decades, and a large amount of information distorting Chinese history and vilifying Chinese mainland has been disseminated by some separatist teachers, observers said.

Today, Hong Kong has recovered from chaos. It is absolutely necessary to strengthen education on national conditions and history, observers noted.

As Monday marked the eighth National Memorial Day, teachers at another local school in Hong Kong told students about the Nanjing Massacre during a morning activity, showed relevant videos and pictures, and had students pay silent tribute to the victims. It is notable that the videos played at the activity featured sand paintings depicting historical events rather than actual footage, which were more suitable for elementary school students, Hong Kong media reported. Students expressed sadness that many innocent Chinese people were killed during the war, said the report.