Japan: "The Rape of Nanking is a fabrication"

[Zinkovich]

TOKYO: About 100 Japanese governing party lawmakers denounced the Nanjing Massacre as a fabrication on Tuesday, contesting Chinese claims that Japanese soldiers killed hundreds of thousands of people after seizing the Chinese city in 1937. The members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party said there was no evidence to prove mass killings by Japanese soldiers in the captured Nationalist capital, then known as Nanking. They accused Beijing of using the alleged incident as a "political advertisement." Nariaki Nakayama, head of the group created to study World War II historical issues and education, said documents from the Japanese government's archives indicated that about 20,000 people were killed - about one-tenth of the more commonly cited figure of 150,000 to 200,000 - in the 1937 attack. China says that as many as 300,000 people were killed. Nanjing suffered a rampage of murder, rape and looting by Japanese troops that became known as "The Rape of Nanking." Historians generally agree that the Japanese Army slaughtered at least 150,000 civilians and raped tens of thousands of women. Nakayama said the study, which was initiated in part because this year is the 70th anniversary of the battle, determined there was no violation of international law. Toru Toida, another member of the group, demanded that photographs portraying the Japanese military in a negative light be removed from Chinese war memorials. "We are absolutely positive that there was no massacre in Nanking," Toida said.

'No massacre in Nanking,' Japanese lawmakers say - International Herald Tribune

Well, this certainly isn't going to help the "estranged"(to lightly put it) relations between China and Japan.

[tinybear]

In many countries, denying the Holocaust is a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment. I've always thought that this was going a bit too far. But having seen what these Japanese MPs have said, I think they should be thrown in jail too!

[Nono]

Yeah, tiny, you're against "affirmative action" for Malays and freedom of speech re the holocaust. But when it comes to the interests of Chinese, well...

Japanese Nanking-deniers are a sort of historical Flat Earth Society. Trouble is, the denial seems to be perpetuated in Japan the same way that refusal to recognize evolution is perpetuated in the US.

[shrike]

Genocide denial is a hate crime as far as I see it.

[Nono]

Certainly not under Japanese law, I guess.

[Jack]

Nariaki Nakayama, head of the group created to study World War II historical issues and education, said documents from the Japanese government's archives indicated that about 20,000 people were killed - about one-tenth of the more commonly cited figure of 150,000 to 200,000 - in the 1937 attack. China says that as many as 300,000 people were killed.

So killing 20,000 people isn't a massacre but killing 200,000 is? I wasn't aware there was a certain number of deaths that qualified as a massacre. Do they only contest the numbers and not the actions? How does killing fewer people become more noble?

[tinybear]

Quote by: Nono Yeah, tiny, you're against "affirmative action" for Malays and freedom of speech re the holocaust. But when it comes to the interests of Chinese, well...

What? What's the connection...??

[Nono]

Well, you're politically correct à l'américaine when it comes to affirmative action, yet you somehow manage to see how the other side of the coin when the minority is Chinese.

And you don't believe in outlawing statements that genocide against the Jews is a myth, but you want to see people jailed who deny that genocidal acts (and yes, Nanking fits the definition set out in the genocide convention) against the Chinese.

Don't seem too uhh.. evenhanded to me.

[Zeebadee]

Quote by: Nono Well, you're politically correct à l'américaine when it comes to affirmative action, yet you somehow manage to see how the other side of the coin when the minority is Chinese. And you don't believe in outlawing statements that genocide against the Jews is a myth, but you want to see people jailed who deny that genocidal acts (and yes, Nanking fits the definition set out in the genocide convention) against the Chinese. Don't seem too uhh.. evenhanded to me.

I don't think that there are any statements that should be outlawed. There are laws against slander and libel already on the books. At the same time, I don't think that "genocide" and "refusal to recognize evolution" are equivalent crimes.

The Japanese can say what they want, the world knows the truth.

[tinybear]

Quote by: Nono Well, you're politically correct à l'américaine when it comes to affirmative action, yet you somehow manage to see how the other side of the coin when the minority is Chinese. And you don't believe in outlawing statements that genocide against the Jews is a myth, but you want to see people jailed who deny that genocidal acts (and yes, Nanking fits the definition set out in the genocide convention) against the Chinese. Don't seem too uhh.. evenhanded to me.

Nono, obviously you fail to see the difference between 'affirmative action' in America and that in Malaysia. In Malaysia, the majority are the Malays, all political power in government and the military is in the hands of the Malays and yet the government discriminates against the minority groups of Chinese and Indians. This is a far far cry from the policy of affirmative action in America.

Besides, there is no conflict between what I said in relation to the policy of affirmative action anywhere. I'm dead against any form of discriminatory policy practised by the state. I'm against affirmative action period.

As for criminalization of the denial the holocaust and/or other war crimes, my remark was only in frustration at the actions/words of those military fanatics who still exist in Japan. I think such acts/words should not be criminalized, but that still doesn't change the fact that I'd like to see these fanatics/liars get their just deserts though.

[O-dehlay]

Colbert made a funny when he responded to this by calling the US WWII internment camps: "happy, fun, mandatory sleep over camps"

[Nono]

tiny, you and rummy can't have read my posts very carefully.

[tinybear]

You'd have to try to be more coherent then, Nono.