by Yan Lei
TOKYO, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese hotel chain has sparked fury on social media recently for placing books in its guest rooms denying the Nanjing Massacre and the forced recruitment of "comfort women" ever happened.
The provocative act by the hotel chain, while hurting the feelings of the people of Japan's close neighbors such as China and South Korea, who suffered from Japan's brutal invasion over 70 years ago, highlights the urgent need for Japan to truly reflect on history.
The APA hotel chain, owning over 400 hotels with more than 66,000 rooms, put copies of the book titled: "The Real History of Japan - Theoretical Modern History" by Seiji Fuji, the penname of the hotel's CEO, in all its rooms in Japan. The book has also been put on sale in the hotel's lobby.
The book, a fabrication based on the rhetoric of the Japanese right-wing, has been denounced as nonsense by historians.
For example, the book said that there were no eyewitness accounts of the Nanjing Massacre by observers from countries other than China and Japan, despite the existence of a plethora of diaries, letters and photographs.
In fact, more than 20 people from Europe and the United States recorded the atrocities and their documents have been preserved by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Register.
The book also claimed that there were only 200,000 people in Nanjing in December 1937, though authoritative historians have pointed out the fact that more than 600,000 people lived in Nanjing at that time and around 300,000 soldiers and civilians were killed by the invading Japanese army.
Many Chinese tourists who visited Japan and stayed in the APA hotel feel indignant and duped when they found out about the books.
APA sees a large portion of its guests coming from China and South Korea, two of Japan's close neighbors which still vividly remember the war atrocities Japan committed to them before and during World War II.
Despite the protests, the APA hotel chain has refused to remove the controversial books from its rooms.
The books, consistent with the right-wing point of view expressed by some historical revisionists here, in fact, exemplifies the negative effects caused by the Japanese government's refusal to face history squarely.
The Japanese government is duty bound to expose its people to correct, factual history. But what it has done is largely suppressing the true facts of war and whitewashing Japan's past war crimes, which hinders its people from knowing the truth.
An exhibition curated by the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM) in Japan shows that middle school history textbooks compiled by seven publishers in Japan mentioned the "comfort women" issue in 1997, while none of them mentioned the issue in 2012 copies of the textbooks.
In April 2015, the Japanese education ministry revised some junior high school history textbook passages regarding Japan's World War II barbarities. For example, in a passage on the Nanjing Massacre, the original statement that the Japanese army "killed many captives and civilians" was watered down to read as "captives and civilians were involved" in the tragedy and "casualties were exposed."
It's universally acknowledged that only by squarely facing up to history can Japan face its future and prevent war atrocities from happening again. This should start by Japan offering those it wronged a sincere apology and giving its people more access to the truth about the war.
Meanwhile, the APA hotel chain, which is keen on expressing its rightist, distorted historical view, would inevitably face boycott from its customers who were hurt by the provocative act.
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Feature: Nanjing Massacre survivor records testimony in LA
by Chenchen Shen
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Plainly dressed in a dark gray suit, 87-year-old Xia Shuqin seemed no different from any other suburban Chinese lady. However, her weatherworn face and her determined eyes suggested that her story was different: She had survived the Nanjing Massacre.
It was Dec. 13, 1937. "Around 9 or 10 a.m., the Japanese invaded our house," Xia remembered vividly. "My father was killed immediately after they broke in. My grandparents, my parents, my sisters, everyone was scared and crying. Seven out of nine of my family members were killed." Full story
Spotlight: Japan refuses to further console "comfort women" victims with apology letters
TOKYO, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday said that his government is not planning to issue letters of apology to Korean "comfort women" despite Seoul's expectations that Japan would take further measures to atone for its forcible wartime conscription of women to work in military brothels.
During a Diet budgetary committee meeting, the Japanese leader said that a deal struck between Tokyo and Seoul last December did not require Japan to issue such letters of apology. Full story
Interview: "Comfort women" records as UNESCO heritage to spur vigilance: scholar
SEOUL, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The records of Japan's wartime exploitation of forced sex slaves, known as "comfort women," should be preserved as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Memory of the World to spur much-needed vigilance, a South Korean scholar and activist has said.
Dr. Ahn Shin-kwon, director of the House of Sharing, a non-governmental group providing shelter and counseling for comfort women in South Korea since 1992, said the comfort women records should fall under the Memory of the World Program, one of the categories of UNESCO World Heritage. Full story
JAKARTA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Japanese government's poor efforts to resolve "comfort women" issue will become a "boomerang" to its political position in the Asia Pacific region, an Indonesian expert told Xinhua in a recent interview.
A number of non-governmental organizations from countries where comfort women suffered -- such as China, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries and regions -- have been working together to nominate documentation on these sexually abused women and girls to be included on the Memory of the World Register. Full story
MANILA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Hilaria Bustamante was only 16 years old when, one day more than 70 years ago, three Japanese soldiers abducted her, hauled her onto a military truck and brought her to a garrison where she was reportedly imprisoned and repeatedly raped for a year.
Now at the age of 90, her tragic story as a Philippine comfort woman for the Japanese army during the Second World War is among those included in a document submitted to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Full story
