Use professional judgment to vet lesson materials, Education Bureau tells teachers after graphic Nanking massacre footage backed by authorities shown to Hong Kong pupils

Education authorities have stressed that teachers must use their professional judgment when deciding whether to use government-supplied learning materials after primary school pupils in Hong Kong reported feeling distraught over graphic footage of the Nanking massacre shown in the classroom.

The children, some as young as seven according to sources, watched video endorsed by the Education Bureau that included scenes of rampaging Japanese soldiers burying Chinese civilians alive and shooting them in the head, as well as fields littered with the dead, including the bodies of babies.

PLK HKTA Yuen Yuen Primary School in Tuen Mun showed the footage to the pupils, some of whom the insiders said were in Primary Two, last Thursday as part of its activities commemorating the massacre by the invading Imperial Japanese Army, which began on December 13, 1937, in the city now known as Nanjing.

China estimates that more than 300,000 people died before the slaughter ended about six weeks later.

The school sent a statement to parents on Saturday saying it was “distressed and worried” to learn that some children felt uneasy after the class.