Saturday, April 03, 2010

Forgotten History: Remembering the Rape of Nanjing

A new documentary film by Japanese activist Tamaki Matsuoka pushes back against whitewashing the dark details of WWII atrocities.

"Chinese and Japanese perceptions of this war are totally different. That's why this documentary is called 'Torn Memories of Nanjing.' My mission is to help more Japanese people learn the facts," Matsuoka told The Associated Press in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Japanese troops began a rampage—known in the West as the "Rape of Nanking" —in December 1937 that many historians generally agree ended with the slaughter of at least 150,000 people and the rape of tens of thousands of women in Nanjing, then the capital of China's Nationalist government. Nanking is the old spelling for the city now called Nanjing.

Japan has fringe groups that deny any atrocity took place, saying the supposed massacre is a fabrication of the communist government. But earlier this year, a report written by Japanese and Chinese historians appointed by their governments confirmed that rapes and a massacre had taken place.

Matsuoka spent more than a decade interviewing hundreds of Chinese victims and Japanese veterans.

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