Japan asked China to tone down Nanjing Incident exhibits

Jan 18, 2008
Takanori Kato / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

In a rare move made in connection with China's memorials related to its anti-Japanese movement and the subsequent war with Japan, Japan has asked China to tone down the contents of the Memorial Hall to the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre, the top Japanese diplomat in Shanghai said Wednesday.

Consul General Yuji Kumamaru said he visited Nanjing for two days last week to meet with senior officials of the city and the memorial itself, which reopened in December after a major expansion of its exhibits, to communicate Tokyo's concern that the exhibits could inspire in Chinese visitors animosity toward Japanese by stressing the brutality of Japanese actions during the war.

It is rare for Japan to make such a public request to China concerning its memorials to the war.

Kumamaru said he conveyed the concerns as representing "the government's awareness of the issue." He made specific mention of the number of victims of the massacre--cited as 300,000 at the museum--pointing out that there are various estimates of the number of dead.

He said he told the city and museum officials that the number 300,000 is stressed more than ever at the memorial, and that China "should listen to various opinions" about the casualty figure.

The Chinese side said the exhibits in the memorial are intended to convey a message of peace, while paying due consideration toward relations with Japan, according to Kumamaru.

The memorial reopened last month to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the incident, with the indoor exhibition space expanded more than 10 times to 9,000 square meters and featuring 3,500 exhibits, including photographs of atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army.