China will commemorate the 8th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre today as the country’s relations with Japan grow tenser – Photo: Architecture & Design/Daniel Gauss

China will commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre—also known as the Rape of Nanjing—across the country today.

An estimated 300,000 people were killed after the Japanese Army invaded China’s then-capital on December 13, 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Six weeks of plundering, raping and killing of mostly civilians by Japanese soldiers followed. The event became a major national trauma in Chinese history, as part of China’s Century of Humiliation.

Since Xi Jinping’s political ascension, the national focus on China’s dark past has significantly strengthened by increasing its presence in education curricula and expanding national discourse in state media. In addition, a greater emphasis was placed on commemoration of past atrocities, including the Nanjing Massacre. The Massacre’s first state commemoration was led by Xi in 2014, soon after becoming president.

The Nanjing Massacre remains at the center of national memorialization of Japanese atrocities against China, which continue to sour bilateral relations. Given worsening relations with Tokyo and Japan’s increasing security cooperation with the U.S. and other Western countries, China will likely increasingly utilize references to past Japanese ills in official public discourse. The fact that many high-level Japanese officials continue to dispute Japanese atrocities in World War Two further complicates the situation.