NANJING, China (Reuters) — China pressed a
propaganda campaign against Japan this week with a guided visit to the
site of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, holding up proof to refute doubts by
some in Japan about the extent of the atrocity or even that it happened
at all.
China's ties with Japan have long been poisoned by what China sees
as Japan's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China
before and during World War Two.
China is determined to sustain the memories.
Japanese leaders have made repeated apologies for the suffering that
Japan's Imperial Army inflicted but remarks by conservative
politicians have cast doubt on Japan's sincerity.
Japanese troops battling Chinese forces captured Nanjing in late
1937. The city, then known as Nanking, was the Chinese capital.
China says in the weeks that followed, Japanese troops killed
300,000 people. A post-war Allied tribunal put the death toll at
142,000.
To the fury of China, some conservative Japanese politicians and
academics deny that the massacre took place, or they put the death
toll much lower.
Just this month, China criticized a member of the board of Japan's
state broadcaster for saying the massacre did not happen.
China's anger over the past is never far from the surface of
relations that have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months
because of a dispute over a chain of islands in the East China Sea.
Ships from both countries shadow each other around the islets and
Japan has scrambled jets numerous times in response to Chinese
aircraft, raising fears of a clash.
Ties have worsened since China demarcated an air defense
identification zone over the East China Sea and a visit in December
by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine
honoring war criminals among war dead.
Compounding China's suspicion is the belief that Abe is intent on
revising Japan's pacifist constitution adopted after its World War
Two defeat.
"ARCHIVES SPEAK LOUDER THAN DENIALS"
On a two-day trip to Nanjing which ended on Thursday, Chinese
officials reminded foreign reporters of Japan's aggression, showing
them skeletons of victims in a memorial hall and letting them hear
the testimony of an octogenarian survivor, Xia Shuqin.
Xia, 83, tearfully recounted how Japanese troops on December 13,
1937, killed her whole family except her and her four-year-old
sister.
"There are still Japanese who are so bad," she said. "Some still
deny history and call me a fraud. I escaped from the massacre and
crawled out from under dead bodies."
"The evidence is not fabricated by the Chinese, there are too many
documents including many foreign government documents," said Zhang
Xianwen, a Nanjing University historian who worked on a compendium
of documents of the massacre.
At the municipal archives, researchers wearing white gloves
displayed about a dozen time-worn documents relating to the
massacre, pulling them one-by-one from a beige lock-box and holding
them up for the group to see.
The documents appeared brittle and tanned with age. Some were
hand-written, with red marks from chop used to stamp people's names.
"We are doing this with the purpose of letting the archives talk ...
The massacre can never be denied," said Wang Han, deputy director
general of the Nanjing Archives Bureau.
"Facts are always facts. I can't help it if some people do not admit
to them. Archives are proof of the facts, recordings of the truth
are the most forceful form of proof. You could say that the proof of
the archives speaks louder than the denials."
As Chinese officials were keeping the history alive in Nanjing, Abe
was telling parliament in Tokyo that Japan had caused great pain and
his government would stand by past apologies.
"As I've said before, in the past many nations, especially those in
Asia, suffered great damage and pain due to our nation. Our
government recognizes this, as have the governments that have gone
before, and will continue this stance," he said.
(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg in Tokyo;
writing by Ben
Blanchard; editing by Robert Birsel)
