APA hotels won't remove books that deny Nanjing Massacre during Olympics

I don't stay in hotels very often, but when I do, I avoid APA like the plague. Sadly, I fear this won't affect his business, and I doubt it will suffer during the Olympics. More's the pity, a sorry little puffed-up man like this needs taking down a few pegs.

Sadly, he is entering to applause as you can see in the photo.

Young Japanese should skew him online and on social media for tarnishing Japan's image.

People who are offended by his views or books should simply avoid his hotels. It's only his own cash flow that's going to suffer.

Jeez! What a scary-looking dude! I wouldn't like to have bumped into a guy like him in Nanjing. With those looks he could have had a great career in Hollywood.

Sadly, his cash flow will not suffer any time soon. There is a shortage of hotels currently. Even if all Olympic athletes avoid this chain, it will be booked solid by people desperate for rooms. The man is an idiot, clearly. But

a lucky idiot so far.

I would love to see some data--have bookings dropped off at all, among Japanese, from abroad? Ditto Trump Hotels. The last thing I want to do on vacation or a business trip is be confronted by the ravings of a toxic egoist.

In any event, I used to regularly use APA--they have several cheap (for Japan) and convenient locations in Kyoto--the one in Gion in particular. Haven't stayed in one for two years now since becoming aware of this guy's politics.

The jackarse aint going to be around forever. People should ignore him and what he says, as the rantings of a senile rich punk.

He has friends in high places who share his views...

http://www.mutantfrog.com/2008/11/04/gen-tomagami-toshio-motoya-toshio-and-abe-shinzo/

The man is an idiot, clearly. But a lucky idiot so far.

There's nothing lucky about it. Abe, the cabinet, most of the LDP and broad swathes of Japan's elite share his views.

Motoya is the rule, not the exception.

Well having had an education untarnished buy government interference I can tell you that the images I have seen of JIA troops proudly being photographed with a Chinese girl tied to a chair and the caption reading our sex slave, or Nazi diplomats decrying the excesses they saw might deflate this grumpy old mans balloon, the world knows what happened no matter what he proclaimed.

I have met very few people in Japan who recall WWII like the rest of the world does.

In general, Japan has their own island version of what happened.

Oh good, another one.

What is it with these hate-pushing bigots who know nothing about the world and can barely string a sentence together that they always have to dress like complete clowns?

Well, it's his hotel.

He failed hate laws in Canada so had to pull them from his hotels there. Too bad Japan can't stand up to bullies

Hope APA is boycotted in Japan

This isn't to be ignored. You don't ignore hate mongers like this. You make an example of him.

What does Montoya think Japanese troops were doing in China in the first place?

Misguided revisionist fools like Motoya are still too common in Japan.......

"Is there something strange about putting my books in my hotels?"

Yes, there is.

I have met very few people in Japan who recall WWII like the rest of the world does.

It's very, very, hard to blame the average Japanese person for NOT knowing. THeir government has kept them in the dark, and did so from the start. Even while bombs were falling on Tokyo the people trusted the government was "winning".

When you have "history" teachers openly state that they can not spend more than one or two lessons discussing WWII, and that mainly being about being victims of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, "because Japan has over 2,000 years of history, they dont have time to teach about such small part"

When you have so-called educators thinking like that, hard to blame the people who treat their teachers as gods.

Just stayed in one of his hotels in Tokyo, price was very low. He is having trouble

at least with that site. Now that I know this I will stay elsewhere when I go to

Tokyo again.

He failed hate laws in Canada so had to pull them from his hotels there.

Canada should have closed down the hotels altogether.

Too bad Japan can't stand up to bullies

Japan's establishment- its beaucracy, politicians, businessmen- is the bully of Japanese and Non-Japanese alike.

Now we have a holocaust denier that is going to be profiting from the Olympics. If the committee had ANY integrity, they would pressure Japan to make him remove the books or relocate the Olympics. PLENTLY of countries STILL have former Olympic facilities that can be put to good use to regenerate more profits. This kind of garbage should not be tolerated.

The cost of a body gard would be a tax deduction on any income from the books etc. Pity the government -tax payers are ultimately paying for this.

He resembles the late Anthony Quinn. I am not sure what places I stayed at in Japan for hotels or hostels, but I do not even remember having any books in the rooms themselves. Although there would be break areas in hostels that had them, but they were generally from around the world.

On a side note, since people seem to be in such an uproar about it, why are they not upset about Bibles in a hotel? Also are his books translated in other languages? If not, how are others suppose to read it anyway? Or it just being there that is the issue?

Can't wait until IOC VP John Coates hears about this! Anyone asked him yet?

It's OK a private business does this. In Japan, the government does not

control private entities. It is regrettable that many other countries believe the propaganda of China.

Gotta love the mobster/boxing promoter look. Pretty sure he and Duterte would get along ok.

Yubaru

I agree it's hard to blame your average person for not knowing something.

Also, if you don't speak English or another widely spoken language you will have only the option of reading things in Japanese.

Its probably why the phenomena of Nihonjinron can still be widely accepted mentally.

At the same time ignorance is not an excuse for everything, and if something is wrong, you should change it.

Its not the Dark Ages and information is widely spread and their are many opinions out there in many languages and Japanese too.

When I go to change apartments later this year and the people try to not rent to me, even though I was born here, and am Japanese, and it's simply my brown eyes and light hair they can't live with...well they are gunna try to hide behind the facade of not knowing and being "Japanese" and that I'm "scary and foreign and will surprise other residents".

This is a form of 'not knowing' that isn't acceptable.

Absolute scum bag of a human being, and pure filth who thinks he's some kind of mobster to boot. I've already got permanent posts about avoiding APA and the fabrication of history that it's owner produces and puts in hotel rooms, and will continue to do so, including posting this article. It has lost me a couple of "friends" here, who say I should leave or that they are embarrassed by my posts, but I tell them it is a statement on the man and APA, not on them, and if they insist on anything other than addressing the books themselves then quite frankly I don't need them in my life. They can cling to the bubble that Japan did nothing wrong, that, even though they weren't there, they know what happened more than the soldiers who have confessed to what happened, etc.

As others have said, despite room rates having plummeted recently, the chain won't suffer because a lot of like-minded fools go there to support this creep. I hope word of this spreads internationally leading up to the Games, so the world can see what kind of nation they are coming to.

Why isn't this book banned under the hate speech law? - Oh, that's right, I forgot. In Japan, laws only apply to the common people. Those with money and power are above the law.

What a moron! Never stayed at any of their hotels and now more than ever, never will. Can't believe this is still going on.

The way to protest the conduct of these rich uneducated bigots is to hit them where it hurts the most.... right in the pocketbook. Boycott the APA and Trump hotels and their linked businesses. Money is the only thing they thrive on. They have no morals. Just look at them and listen to the garbage that they spew out of their mouths everyday.

And with more and more Chinese tourists and business people coming to Japan, his bottom line will defintatley be affected...Especially if there is a concerted effort in China to expose him to the Chinese people.

It's OK a private business does this. In Japan, the government does not

control private entities.

Rectification, it is ok a private business to do anything in Japan as long as the company is big enough.

Yes, it is him hotel. And it is my money. My money will not find its way into the pockets of someone who denies the Nanjing massacre.

We stayed in one last year when a camping trip got rained out and we did a last minute switch to a city trip to Kanazawa. I might go to Kanazawa again because its a great city, but we won't stay in an APA hotel.

If someone is going to campaign against this, I recommend trying to get local governments and schools from using APA hotels. The Shiga prefecture government stopped (temporarily I think) using Dentsu over the overwork scandal, so it can be done.

Its an odd one..

Personally, I think he's out of line, I don't agree with what he has to say, I think that Japan should unconditionally apologise for its roll in these events and get on with it. Unless you, yourself, have bias and prejudice you understand that the Japan of today isn't the same Japan that was involved in those events, the only people who truly believe it is are in the minority and can usually be found in black vans looking like idiots.

This all being said, Im not sure I agree with banning or limiting speech or freedom of expression, especially in private organizations or businesses. (please understand I think schools, medical facilities, government organizations and so on should be not taking any part in exclusionary language or policy).

I say I think, he's an old twit and an example of people stuck in a past that never existed, and I hope people will avoid the hotel if they disagree with his use of his business to push his private opinion.

Many tourists who come to Japan for the Olympics will choose not to stay at APA when this becomes news abroad.

Having learned of this after I set up my trip to Japan, I am very glad no APA hotels were on my hotel list. I would have asked my travel agent to change immediately, because I will not support such ignorance.

For those wondering, his books are apparently available inside each room of his hotels.

So, another one who's claiming something is a hoax

I will never ever book this hotel.

So Curious George is still up to his same old nonsense...

I have met very few people in Japan who recall WWII like the rest of the world does.

Why do people assume the "rest of the world" has it right or that Motoya is wrong?

What does Montoya think Japanese troops were doing in China in the first place?

Maybe the same thing US troops are in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, ...

In America you often find a copy of the bible in the rooms.  I don't agree or even believe anything written in it, but it doesn't prevent me from staying at a particular room because it has the bible in it (and there's a lot of crazy stuff written in it).  Heck, how often do you actually read the stuff the hotel leaves in your room?

Many Japanese support him, anyway.

Many Japanese support him, anyway.

I typically tend to stay away from making or at least trying not to make generalizations, but hell there are plenty of people across the pond that support that senile 70 year old as well.

Which means it doesnt make it right, and it just shows that there are "many" ignorant Japanese too!

The hat, the face (a ray of sunshine entering the room), the scarf, the denial of historical records what more do you need to join the LDP regime? Nippon Kaige. Show him evidence and a panel will appear full of 70 year old men justifying bizarrely kamikaze, unit 731, death marches, training women and children with bamboo poles to resist men armed with machine guns. totally delusional.

Maybe after they go broke due to no customers, the next owner will remove the books.

Hokkaido so maneku

I think about 80% of people here agree that the Koreans Fabricated the comfort woman thing and that it's in the past and already paid for. And China is making up and exaggerating Nanjing and that too has already been paid for and apologized to.

Since most people here feel that way (and they do have a point, it is in the past) it won't affect business. I think it will make him even more popular.

People might not how he thinks, but we do have to give him his due - he has the strength of conviction in his own way.

I avoid 2 hotel, APA and Trump Hotel, both are two side of the same coin. One is the history denier and the other is climate change denier. Being old at certain age will be difficult to change ther world view except boycott.

Kazuaki Shimazaki Today  03:29 pm JST

People might not how he thinks, but we do have to give him his due...

Well, I'm certainly not going to give him any custom.

 think about 80% of people here agree that the Koreans Fabricated the comfort woman thing

You are what? 25? 30 years old? I'll tell you that at least 80% of the people here DO NOT KNOW WTF happened and they want to believe what their government is telling them what happened, and are afraid to acknowledge the truth!

Anyone call pull numbers out of the nether regions, does not make them accurate.

May be No one Will stay there to read his Books then what No money coming in over a fiction book. This is a No brainier. Why not just sell it in the foyer as a novelty .

Kazuaki Shimasaki: "People might not how he thinks, but we do have to give him his due"

No, we most certainly do not have to give him his due, same as we would not for someone who decided to say something like the atomic bombings only killed people who deserved it, and no true innocents were killed, or some equally horrendous garbage, simply because he or she chose to stick by such an opinion. Would you say, "Oh well... they deserve their due for standing behind their convictions" then?

All I see this as is a non-direct way of saying "No Chinese Allowed".

rawbeer - you said -

"..What does Montoya think Japanese troops were doing in China in the first place?

Maybe the same thing US troops are in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, ..."

Could you elaborate on that a little please.

Especially, I'm interested in what connections current world military crisis have to the 1930s in east asia and the link of that to the topic of Motoya's book?

Big deal, I used to go to the Socialist revolution Hotel of Cuba even that I dont like them, food was good and the veds ok, only thing I didnt like was the TV with 2 obly 2 tv channels (socialist and something with homemade cartoons)

Reading these comments top to bottom - wow. Quite the mob mentality brewing. The same type of mentality that resulted in so much push back that Mr. Trump was elected. Good job. Hopefully everyone will calm down as we don't want a lynching.

How the media can justify the level of attention to this frankly insignificant Hotelier is infuriatingly unnecessary.

Toshio Motoya feels compelled to publish his politically poisonous views and then stealthily inflict their contents on his customers.

Toshio Motoya mentality ultimately reveals a grossly, if not ghastly inflated sententious need to persecute and oppress future generations of Japan pacifist juvenescence into humiliating relentless rounds of kowtowing apologetic beg pardoning.

It is a criminally repressive injustice that Motoya views have openly affiliated political support from incumbent Government cabinet member and even indirectly Shinzo Abe Prime Minister of Japan and the President of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The most iniquitous unfairness of all is boycotting his APA Hotels would disproportionally affect APA Hotels contracted part time staff.

The gurning arrogant Motoya ill mannered social behaviour, refraining from removing a hat when entering a room in the presence of Ladies is rude and charmless. Motoya discourteous impoliteness is a reflection of an ignorance associated with a smug self important belief that the media will hang on, and report his every peevish word.

It's hard to see that this is good for business. That said, how many visitors to Japan are going to research this sort of stuff before booking a hotel. Not many I would imagine.

@smithinjapan June 3 09:36 pm JST

No, we most certainly do not have to give him his due, same as we would not for someone who decided to say something like the atomic bombings only killed people who deserved it, and no true innocents were killed, or some equally horrendous garbage, simply because he or she chose to stick by such an opinion. Would you say, "Oh well... they deserve their due for standing behind their convictions" then?

Probably if someone would say that, he would be an American. And while I personally would not like it prima facie, if he as a hotel entrepreneur wants to put his book detailing his arguments on this subject in the hotel room, I'll respect his decision. 

I'll not suggest other people to not visit his hotel just because he has this book in the room. In fact, if his book actually has good points, it can even be a plus point for him.

And to be honest, the sad truth is that the world is so biased and over indoctrinated on this matter a book saying this is likely to catch less flak than a book even suggesting that it was 299,999 Nanjingans that got killed instead of the "full" 300,000.

Kazuaki Shimazaki Today  11:57 am JST

And while I personally would not like it prima facie, if he as a hotel entrepreneur wants to put his book detailing his arguments on this subject in the hotel room, I'll respect his decision. 

Why? In what way are his political views in any way relevant to the service he provides? Alienating any potential paying customers in this way is just stupid. It makes as much sense as telling the housekeeping staff to empty the bins all over the beds when they're making up the rooms.

My family were due to stay in an APA hotel in Chiba next month. After reading this story, we decided to cancel and have booked ourselves an AirBnB instead.

Sorry APA, but if you're going to allow ignorance a place in your hotels, we won't be using you any time soon.

What do the letters APA stand for ?

Amazing Poor Accommodation ??

Should have written "Amazingly"...

Perhaps another choice...

"Always Pick Another"

Motoya can do whatever he wants, but Chinese and Korean will hate him and whoever believe in him for his false understanding.

This is a form of 'not knowing' that isn't acceptable.

Playing devil's advocate here and keeping (trying) my own opinion or thoughts out of the matter.......

How is it not acceptable? You and others were educated differently and made a choice in your lives to be informed. Why is it that these folks, in their ignorance, unacceptable in their behavior or attitude? By what right do you have to impose your beliefs and values upon them and say that you are right, and they are wrong.

From my own experience, I have seen and read these books in the APA Hotel chain. They are beautifully written books and should not be removed. Totally acceptable to keep in the hotel. If you can place a Bible and a Koran in the book, then you can also place a Japanese book there too.

Yubaru June 3 07:50 am JST

It's very, very, hard to blame the average Japanese person for NOT knowing.

You keep looking down on average Japanese as if they do not know anything. I do not think your attitude is justified. They most likely know better than you do. What surprises me all the time is that many of the pundits from the West learned the Battle of Nanjing from fiction novels and fiction movies.

Would you tell me from what material you learned the Battle of Nanjing? Remember, material presented by Chinese communist party is pretty much fabricated.

This topics have been raised here several times. Every time, you refuse discussing it, saying you know you are right and Japanese do not know anything. Not quite. Unlike popular belief in China, the claims by Chinese Communist Party is far from proven.

What I propose is to discuss the matter based on EVIDENCE, which is totally lacking in China's argument.

Yubaru

You pull a lot of numbers and estimates in your posts as well.

I may not be able to say 80%, but I do still think that in Japan, the vast majority of people don't think Japan was doing what other nations say they were.

If they (as you claim) "DO NOT KNOW WTF HAPPENED" and are going by Japanese history, then they would be under the notion that Korea and China are exaggerating and that it has already been paid for and apologized for and dealt with.

I guess you are trying to age shame me now as well? I'm older than the ages you stated, and my birthday is coming up too. :)

Motoya...denied that books were removed from hotels this year, saying contractual obligations meant that "nothing with information" could be left in the rooms.

That would have been no problem since his books contain no information. Presumably works of fiction are allowed to adorn the shelves under the rules of the Hokkaido games event.

CH3CHO: "You keep looking down on average Japanese as if they do not know anything. I do not think your attitude is justified."

No, we do not look down on the average Japanese at all, nor do we suggest they "don't know anything". But they certainly do not know the real facts of history if they read books like this guy's, or the white-washed Japanese textbooks.

"They most likely know better than you do."

No, they do not. I have seen Japanese exchange students literally go eyes-wide when they heard about what Japan had done with sex slaves (even other Japanese), Unit 731, the Nanjing Massacre, the Baatan Death March, etc., learning from REAL books, and hearing even accounts of former IJA members testifying -- all things you deny flat out. So, no, they do not know -- not unless they have learned outside of Japan.

"What surprises me all the time is that many of the pundits from the West learned the Battle of Nanjing from fiction novels and fiction movies."

Says the guy supporting a book by a well-known bigot with absolutely zero proof to back up his claims, and who was not there. But here are some quotations and links to former IJA testimony and confessions. We know you'll just dismiss it, but that says a lot about YOUR proof and what you CHOOSE to believe over the facts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/world/japanese-veteran-testifies-in-war-atrocity-lawsuit.html

'Mr. Shinozuka was the first of several veterans of the unit who in the last month have described their actions. They also testified that some prisoners had been deliberately frozen to death and some had been injected with lethal chemicals and germs to study the efficacy of those agents as weapons.'

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/oct/06/news/mn-39961

"I tortured him by holding a candle flame to his feet, but he didn't say anything," said Mio, after identifying from sepia photographs two Chinese whom he tried to force to confess to being Communist spies in 1941.

He told a three-judge panel that, despite doubts about their guilt, he handed the men over to the notorious Unit 731, where they died as human guinea pigs in Japan's top-secret biological warfare program."

How about this exhibition of proof held by a former soldier? More "foggy memories"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMsOCrNkzqY

Not enough?

http://ahrp.org/2013-elderly-korean-comfort-women-survivors-hold-a-protest-rally-outside-the-japanese-embassy-in-seoul/

“the women cried out, but it didn’t matter to us whether the women lived or died. We were the emperor’s soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we raped without reluctance.” Yasuji Kaneko

smithinjapan June 6 04:27 pm JST

Excuse me. What are you doing, Smith? This thread is about Battle of Nanjing or "Rape of Nanjing".

Your links are,

One New York Times article on UNIT 731

One LA Times article on UNIT 731

One article on COMFORT WOMEN by an organization for ethical medical research

Off topic, aren't they? Do you have anything to say about the topic?

CH3CHO: "Off topic, aren't they? Do you have anything to say about the topic?"

They are not off-topic at all, since they deal with similar examples of the vehement denial of historical FACT by Japanese right-wingers. I notice you could not even refute the claims this time, or suggest that they were unreliable sources. So, you prove my point by trying to deflect.

But since you asked:

"When I tried to cut off the first one, either the farmer moved or I mis-aimed. I ended up slicing off just part of his skull. Blood spurted upwards. I swung again... and this time I killed him... We were taught that we were a superior race since we lived only for the sake of a human god—our emperor. But the Chinese were not. So we held nothing but contempt for them... There were many rapes, and the women were always killed. When they were being raped, the women were human. But once the rape was finished, they became pig's flesh"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiro_Azuma

So, what's your excuse going to be this time? That he was "too young to be a soldier", so stated by the IJA that recognises the Himeyori School Girls as battlefield soldiers who are a tragic remind of war? You going to suggest they know better than he does?

Just in case, though:

"In the late 1980s, as stated earlier, a chemical factory worker in Japan, Ono Kenji, investigated the incident by interviewing 200 or so war veterans and gathering 24 wartime diaries and other historical materials. Ono collected 24 wartime diaries in the course of his investigation. Ono’s research made it clear that the 15,000 captives and additional 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners taken after the 14th were all massacred by military order."

https://thenankingmassacre.org/2015/07/04/japanese-soldiers-diaries/

I suppose are the soldiers' diaries are "nothing but lies" too, right?

From one of the diaries: "We took about 5,000 prisoners of war, some of those we captured a couple of days ago, to the bank of the Yangtze and mowed them down by machine guns. Then we stabbed them with bayonets to our satisfaction. I probably bayoneted 30-odd hateful Chinese soldiers. Climbing up the heap of dead bodies and bayoneting them gave me a courage, which made me feel I could even vanquish ogres. I stabbed them with all my might while hearing them groan. There were some old ones and kids. I killed them all. I even borrowed a sword and severed a head. It was the most unusual experience I’ve ever had."

Pretty brave, your former IJA. And now they have cowards like Motoya for their ghosts to hide behind.

smithinjapan June 7 05:40 pm JST

Shiro_Azuma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiro_Azuma

Your link shows that the "testimony" by Shiro Azuma was found false in a trial.

smithinjapan June 7 05:40 pm JST

https://thenankingmassacre.org/2015/07/04/japanese-soldiers-diaries/

Ono’s research made it clear that the 15,000 captives and additional 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners taken after the 14th were all massacred by military order.

The mass executions of those POWs are possibly the largest in the Nanking Atrocities.

If the killing of 15,000 is "the largest in the Nanking Atrocities," we can safely say it is a much smaller incident than killing of 200,000 or 300,000 as Chinese claim. Right wingers say the mass killing was justified because the Chinese soldiers took of their army uniforms and did not surrender. The judgement of Far East Military Tribunal confirms that Chinese soldiers took off their uniform and did not surrender.

http://werle.rewi.hu-berlin.de/tokio.pdf

 (page 494) Nearly all the Chinese soldiers had evacuated the city or had abandoned their arms and uniforms and sought refuge in the International Safety Zone and all resistance had ceased as the Japanese Army entered the city on the morning of 13 December 1937.