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China lodges protest with Japan over new textbooks

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Does anyone know what China writes in their text or history books about their activities in Tibet by any chance? I am a kiwi and I certainly know the atrocities committed during the NZ land wars against Maori are not taught. Unfortunately, I think all countries are guilty of this one.

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Ms Hua also added: "The Tiananmen Square massacre was an atrocity carried out by the Chinese communists. The evidence is cast iron and a conclusion was reached long ago about it. This whitewashing and censoring by China in Chinese text books again shows that China is unwilling to face up to historical mistakes."

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China's efforts to gather global hatred for Japan based on long settled WWII issues over the last several years has failed rather miserably. Rather than being hated by everyone as China had hoped, Japan is being welcomed by it's former WWII victims like the Philippines and Vietnam, and former enemies such as the U.S. and Australia like to help stop China's territorial expansion in the South and East China Seas. The world doesn't buy China's propaganda war, and judging from the number of Chinese tourists in Japan, neither do a great many Chinese people.

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smodgy: I would say: most countries are guilty of this one. Germany is not, though. They are facing their own atrocities. (I am not German)

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tinawatanabe: There were foreign Embassies in the capital but there were no reports from them. Did they escape? No.

What a ridiculous comment. There were indeed many westerners living in Nanjing at the time and most did flee the city when the IJA approached. However, small number of Western businessmen, journalists and missionaries, chose to remain behind and formed The International Committee, in an effort to try to protect Chinese civilians. German businessman John Rabe, who was a member of the Nazi Party was elected as its leader. Here is one of his reports...

In one of the houses in the narrow street behind my garden wall, a woman was raped, and then wounded in the neck with a bayonet. I managed to get an ambulance so we can take her to Kulou Hospital... Last night up to 1,000 women and girls are said to have been raped, about 100 girls at Ginling Girls' College alone. You hear nothing but rape. If husbands or brothers intervene, they're shot. What you hear and see on all sides is the brutality and bestiality of the Japanese soldiers.

It's also a fact that the massacre was witnessed by the Japanese Press corps (as was the Rape of Manila) but they chose not to disclose it in Japan. An editorial in the Asahi Daily Tensei Jingo in 1947 after the massacres were disclosed to the Japanese public, stated clearly "It is shameful that not one line of truth was reported in the papers" It is even more shameful that people like Tina Watanabe continue to do so despite the overwhelming evidence.

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There will always be denial. These politicans and public figures are in the minority.

The Government of China can be accused of the same acts of denial to atrocities carried out on innocent student demonstrators calling for democratic governance.

I am afraid the Government of China will have to accept the basic principals of international law, refrain from aggressive agenda of expansion in the South China Sea, and cease bullying it neighbours at every turn to sieze the moral high ground.

All the same the J media has allot to answer for giving these right wingers ill deserved headline publicity.

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@smodgy Interesting, I did know about that. Americans do this too, glossing over Vietnam by saying "it was a long time ago!" Koreans also don't teach or talk about the Jeju Uprising.

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IJA comiitted war crimes and crimes against humanity in WW2 and those had been well documented in all parts of the world. No need to argue on that one. The point is US influence in the world is declining and US needs Japan to counter China's rise. Those right wing extremists in Japan and PM Abe are exploiting the opportunity to take action to change/whitewash this shameful part of Imperial Japan history. That is pretty clear.

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OK, it's all a pack of lies. The hundreds of gruesome photos and films of Japanese soldiers bayoneting civilians and holding severed heads, the eye-witness testimonials of murder and rape, including those of the Japanese press, the diaries of Imperial Japanese soldiers, the horrified reports from US soldiers upon entering Manila, the 1 in 4 Allied prisoners who died in Japanese POW camps, the thousands of indonesian slave laborers worked to death... I could go on...but it's all lies perpetrated by the evil Allies and Commies to make Japan look bad.

You make yourself morally complicit in those war crimes by ignoring the overwhelming evidence.

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1 step forward 10 steps back♪

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Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in its then capital.

Maybe 3 instead of 300,000.

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tinawatanabeMar. 23, 2016 - 04:19PM JST "IJA comiitted war crimes and crimes against humanity in WW2" It is established fact that Tokyo tribunal was illegal, tried by war winners ignoring all the evidence Japan had. Crimes >against humanity is a new law created by the Tokyo tribunal.

Regardless of whether the International Tribunal for the Fareast was legal or not, the undeniable fact is that those charged were prosecuted, and where found guilty were convicted and sentenced. Done with and old history. China, was legally represented at the time by it's sole recognized government, The Republic of China. What's ridiculous, but perhaps in keeping with the CCP's policy of not going along with the rest of the word, is for them who did not exist in 1945 whining about WWII issues that "China" has put behind it. Even after the CCP was in power, China signed the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Friendship ending all WWII issues in 1972, and even reaffirmed it again in 1978. But the Chinese dictatorship has no regard for legal realities, the way they refused to recognize the International Court of Arbitration, despite being a UNSC member.

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There's no doubt terrible atrocities were committed in Nanking. Facts might be interpreted differently between China and Japan but as Ossan pointed out, all matters regarding IJA conducts were prosecuted during the tribunals. Tina may be right regarding the legitimacy of such trial but that's a whole other can of worms that should be analyzed separately and not on whether this incident had occurred or not.

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The Incident has occured this is not denied by Japan and it's Government, what is in dispute though is the number of victims.

China claims the highest number which is not supported by Japan and individual overseas Studies.

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A one-party dictatorship that can never be voted out of power, where expressing an opinion that counters the official government position is a prosecutable crime, and that controls all media and denies any event that puts it in a bad light such as the Tianamen Square Massacre is in no position to be commenting on the textbooks of another country. Especially a democratic one.

Being "democratic" doesn't give Abe & his stubborn left ring buddies the right to make bald face lies in distorting WW2 history. Democratic SK (& US) are also protesting about Japan's denial on comfort women history as well. Germany did the right thing by making a formal apology regarding WW2 and now they are a respectable nation. Japan should do the same for the benefit of the next generation. This would allow all the countries to move on.

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Can someone tell me what did they revise? Once again, China need to look themselves into the mirror before criticizing others.

Being ignorant about history is no excuse to make idiotic comments.

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This coming from China who along with Japan distort, ignore & lie about history, BUT China is a commie country Japan is a supposed democracy & ever since the crappy sex slave deal with S Korea Japan has hot tailed back to further white washing its history not only about the sex slaves but its atrocities.

Seems neither will ever learn, pretty stupid in the long run

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“The Nanjing massacre was an atrocity carried out by the Japanese militarists when they invaded China

In Nanjing, there was a Japanese Officer who bragged his sword had decapited many heads throughout his ploys in China. It was sad how many chinese girls / women were raped by the Japanese soldiers. Of course the textbooks do not mention this.

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I personally think the truth of Nanjing lies in between the two versions. It's natural that the Japanese would deny the massacre taking place, same as it's natural for the Chinese to make it out to be genocide. Every war has these kinds of incidents. Look at Mai Lai in the Vietnam War... American soldiers practically wiped out an entire village of civvies... and it makes pretty grim reading. But there is evidence it happened from those who tried to intervene (US chopper pilots) and those who reported it to their congressmen after the murders. Reading it is like something the German SS would have done in Russian villages on the Eastern Front.

I'm not denying Nanjing happened, I just think it's being used as a propaganda football. A bit like during WW1 the British public were fed lies about the Germans bayonetting and eating babies, raping women and cutting the hands of prisoners... the truth is in there, I just don't think we're getting it from either side.

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A one-party dictatorship that can never be voted out of power, where expressing an opinion that counters the official government position is a prosecutable crime, and that controls all media and denies any event that puts it in a bad light such as the Tianamen Square Massacre is in no position to be commenting on the textbooks of another country. Especially a democratic one.

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Japan may very well be remiss about how it teaches its children history.

And I still don't give a crap what China has to say about it.

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The books also revise some references to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.

Can someone tell me what did they revise?

Chinese school textbooks also have their own political slant, following the ruling Communist Party’s line on issues like Tibet and Taiwan, and not mentioning highly sensitive events such as the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen Square.

Once again, China need to look themselves into the mirror before criticizing others.

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Marucus

Of course there are fabricated stories. Whichever story prevailed by media and propaganda become "history", like Korean version of "comfort women" because people don't look into the original materials. They don't read any of Japanese material.

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IJA comiitted war crimes and crimes against humanity in WW2

It is established fact that Tokyo tribunal was illegal, tried by war winners ignoring all the evidence Japan had. Crimes against humanity is a new law created by the Tokyo tribunal.

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the undeniable fact is that those charged were prosecuted, and where found guilty were convicted and sentenced. Done with and old history.

I agree but people like decibel keep blaming Japan everyday saying things like "IJA comiitted war crimes and crimes against humanity in WW2". I have to say something.

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Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in its then capital.

There were foreign Embassies in the capital but there were no reports from them. Did they escape? No.

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If you don't learn as accurate history as possible, you'd learn nothing and may repeat the same mistakes.

I understand if China or SK keep blaming Japan because they are that kind of people, but Americans, who are supposed to be civilized and law abiding are also joining them and even becoming more aggressive than China or SK such as resoluting condemnations on Japan's history in several municipalities and Congress is very disappointing.

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