A cause-oriented group in China has sought an apology from Japan's prime minister and the payment damages to victims of a wartime atrocity nearly eight decades ago.

The China Federation of Demanding Compensation From Japan said a letter was sent to the Japanese embassy on Saturday, marking the day Japanese troops massacred civilians in Nanjing in 1937.

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The group's leader said this is the first time an organization in China pursued a specific apology from the Japanese government for the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing massacre.

The day of remembering the massacre was observed as part of China's efforts to remind its neighbors and the Western nations of Japanese belligerence in the past because of what Beijing perceives to be Tokyo's renewed militarism.

Chinese organizers said the the letter was sent to Japan's embassy in Beijing last week.

A Japanese embassy spokesman said officials received the letter but gave out no other information.

History shows the massacre in Nanjing, which lies in eastern China, led to the killing of some 150,000 civilians.

China officially tallied the death count at 300,000, which makes the atrocity one of the worst during World War II.

Many locals in China think Japan fell short of offering an apology for its violent World War II occupation of a huge part of their territory.

Ties between Beijing and Tokyo, which share billions of dollars in trade and investment, have taken a turn for the worst in recent years over contested territory in the East China Sea.

The visit of Japan's political leaders to a Tokyo shrine remembering the war dead and speeches made there were taken in China as an attempt to play down Japan's war guilt. 

TagsAnti-Japanese War, Nanjing Massacre, World War II