A privately funded museum to house historical documents on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) will open this July in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

Wu Xianbin, a 42-year-old owner of a Nanjing-based manufacturing factory, is the sole founder of the museum.

The two-storey hall covers 1,000 square metres and occupies the northeast part of Wu's factory. The exhibition space will comprise four rooms displaying hundreds of pieces of weaponry used by Japanese troops in Nanjing, 2,000 books on the war in various languages and 30,000 photographs taken during this period.

"It took me three years and 3 million yuan (US$375,000) to collect all those materials related to the war," said Wu. "I have spent a long time finding and convincing those former Japanese army journalists to sell me the photos they took during the war."

Wu, initially a book collector, bought an English book on the 1937 Nanjing Massacre by chance in 2002, which turned out to be of high historical value.

Wu began investigating the war and decided to set up a museum so that people could remember and learn more about the tragedy and the war itself.

Wu plans to provide free entry to the museum for all visitors. He welcomes academics from both China and overseas.

"In addition to experts from China and Japan, I also want to invite those from other countries. I want them to join the research and demonstrate their findings to the world in an unbiased way," said Wu.

Wu will donate about half a million yuan (US$62,500) to accommodate academics from all over the world to conduct research in his museum.

He said that experts from both Japan and China have assisted him to establish the museum.

Local culture authorities have paid close attention to the development of the museum and support Wu's work.

Wu has exhibited his collections many times in the city.

(China Daily April 4, 2006)