300,000

300,000. The estimated total number of casualties from the Japanese invasion of Nanjing. Among that number not only the soldiers are counted, but the innocent as well. The invaders took depravity to a whole new level; they invented new kinds of wickedness. The Nanjing Massacre Museum was one of my first stops in the city. In tandem with the overcast weather, the visit cast a pall over the trip. As much as anyone could linger on the astonishing and agonizing past of Nanjing, circa the winter of 1937-38, the winter of Nan-King's discontent, I found instead a new feeling. After the overwhelming story of the massacre, I was inspired by how the city of Nanjing is very much alive today. The city has taken great measures to preserve the memory of the crime that befell it, and rightly it should. But you needn't go far beyond the gray slate walls of the memorial to see a city bathed in ethereal glow; a place resonating with life.