An encyclopedia recording the history of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 is being compiled and is expected to be published next year, academics writing it announced on December 10.

The encyclopedia, featuring more than 18,000 entries so far, will reveal historical facts relating to the crimes committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing from late 1937 to early 1938, said Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

Experts from China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Bangladesh have contributed to the compilation.

Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, then China's capital, on December 13, 1937, and carried out a six-week massacre. Chinese records show more than 300,000 people— most of them civilians—were brutally murdered and thousands of women were raped.