NANKING MASSACRE -- THE JAPANESE VERSIONS
From 17 to now (1990), the Japanese militarists, the government and the public dealt with the undeniable atrocities committed by the Japanese troops in Nanjing and the rest of Asia in a number of ways. The major waves of Japanese treatment of this dark historical tragedy ranged from total cover-up during the war, confessions and documentation by the Japanese soldiers during the 1950's and 60's, minimize of the extent of the Nanjing Massacre during the 70's and 80's, official distortion and rewriting of history during the 80's, and total denial of the occurrence of the Nanjing Massacre by government officials in 1990.
(I) DURING AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR
The Japanese Government had a tight control over the news media during the War and the Japanese civilians did not know about the truth of the Nanjing Massacre or other crimes committed by the Japanese Military Force. In fact, the Japanese soldiers were always described as heroes. It was not until the postwar Tokyo Trial (tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East) that the truth of the Nanjing Massacre was first revealed to the Japanese civilians. The atrocities revealed during the Trial shocked the Japanese Society at the time.
(II) POSTWAR TO 1970's
Prior to 1970, there was no open denial by the Japanese regarding the Nanjing Massacre. In fact, there were a number of Japanese books, many were confessions or diaries by Japanese soldiers, which confirmed and gave detailed accounts of the Massacre. Works by the Japanese documenting the Nanjing Massacre climaxed with the appearance of Katsuichi Honda's series of articles, "The Journey to China", published in Asahi Simbun (Nov.,1971), which were based on interviews with the survivors of the Massacre. However, the Nanjing Massacre was never emphasized in the Japanese history textbooks. During the Tokyo Trial, the Massacre was treated as one unique example of the atrocities committed in Asia, rather than as a separate charge. Few Japanese historians treated the Massacre as a serious research topic.
(III) 1970 TO 1990
The denial of the Nanjing Massacre started around 1972, when the right-wing political force in Japan began to rise. The Japanese denial of the Nanjing Massacre and other brutalities in Asia can be divided into three broad categories:(a) Complete Denial of the Massacre
By the end of 1971, the wave
of
confessions by Japanese soldiers and research by journalists exposing
the brutal
crimes in Asia encountered strong resistance from the right-wing
conservatives.
The articles by Katsuichi Honda, the "Journey to China", triggered a new
phase
of response in the Japanese treatment of the war crimes from the
Japanese
right-wingers. The denial movement began with two controversial yet
influential
articles: (1) an article by a self-claimed Jew named Shichihei Yamamoto,
"Reply
to Katsuichi Honda" published in Every Gentlemen, March 1972; (2) an
article by
Akira Suzuki, "The Phantom of The Nanjing Massacre", published in the
April
issue of the same Journal. This wave of open and public Japanese denial
of their
war crimes escalated over the years, as evidenced by Massaki Tanaka's
book
"Fabrication of Nanjing Massacre" (Nihon Kyobun Sha, 1984) in which not
only was
the Nanjing Massacre denied, but the Chinese Government was charged as
responsible for the occurrence of the Sino-Japanese War.
(b) Disputes on the Number of People Killed in the
Massacre
Besides total
denial, another line of Japanese thoughts insisted that the Nanjing
Massacre was
exaggerated by the Chinese. This view is best elaborated in a book
written by
Hata Ikuhiko "Nanjing Incident" (Chuo Koron Shinsho, 1986) in which it
was
argued that the number of victims in the Massacre was between
38,000-42,000. It
was also argued that the killing of surrendered or captured soldiers
should NOT
be considered as "Massacre". This book is now considered as the official
history
text on the issue by the Japan Ministry of Education.
(c) Distortion and Rewriting of History
In 1982, the Ministry of
Education
embarked on a campaign to distort the presentation of the history of
World War
II. In the process of the revision of history textbooks in Japan,
Japanese
"aggression" in China was substituted by "advancing in and out" of China
during
the Sino-Japanese War. The Nanjing Massacre was described as a minor
incident
which occurred because the Japanese soldiers were too frustrated by the
strong
resistance from the Chinese Army. Although the substitution of the word
"aggression" by "advancing in and out" was finally stopped because of
the strong
protest by the surrounding Asian countries and various Japanese
educational
groups, the rewriting of the Nanjing Massacre remained. Moreover, the
Ministry
of Education has never admitted that the distortion of history is a
mistake.
Japanese attending the memorial service for seven Class A War criminals, including Matsui Sekine(). The words on the monument says: "The Tomb for Seven Honorable Men Died for their Nation".
(IV) 1990, DENIALS BY JAPANESE OFFICIALS
The Nanjing Massacre came into focus again when an interview with Shintaro Ishihara, the most popular contemporary writer in Japan and the most flamboyant member of the Diet, was published in the October issue of Playboy Magazine. In the interview, Ishihara declared that the Nanjing Massacre never occurred, and that "it is a story made up by the Chinese, ... it is a lie". On November 10th, 1990, during a protest by Chinese Americans against the Japanese actions in Diao-Yu-Tai Island, the Deputy Japanese Consul in Houston maintained that according to Japanese sources, "the Nanjing Massacre never occurred."In 1994, the Japanese justice Minister and Army Chief of Staff, Shigeto Nagano, insisted claims of Japan atrocities were all fabrications.