The Alleged 'Nanking Massacre' Japan's rebuttal

勝者による敗者の裁判は、どれほど司法的な体裁を整えてみても、決して公正なものではあり得ない。
―― ロバート・A・タフト米国上院議員
一九四六年十月五日
The trial of the vanquished by the victors cannot be impartial no matter how it is hedged about with the forms of justice.
- Senator Robert A. Taft,
October 5, 1946
戦争を交えている二国間においては、その戦闘員のいずれかが宣伝に訴えることによって、世論を自分に有利に仕向けようとする危険が必ず存在している。その宣伝において種々の事件 ― 悲しいかなこれはすべての戦争から分離することはできない ― は偏見と感情を激昂させ、戦いの係争点を曖昧にしてしまう特別の目的のために拡大され、曲解されるのである。
―― チャールス・アディス卿
一九三八年十一月十日、英国チャタムハウスにて
Between two countries at war there was always a danger that one or other of the combatants would seek to turn public opinion in his favour by resort to a propaganda in which incidents, inseparable alas (!) from all hostilities, were magnified and distorted for the express purpose of inflaming prejudice and passion and obscuring the real issues of the conflict.
- Sir Charles Addis at Chatham House,
November 10, 1938

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my turn

Ten years have passed since the end of the Cold War, and the world is now in the midst of turmoil and crisis. In order to keep the scarcely maintained world peace, the role of the continued Japan-U.S. friendship and alliance is unshakable. Throughout the Cold War era and up to the present day, there has been some serious friction recorded, especially in the area of trade relative to the export of textiles and steel, also in the area of discussions as to increasing Japan's defense capabilities, and to restructuring of Japan's economic system. However, these items of discussion have been, without exception, items of national interest. Both nations, Japan and U.S., have tried to mutually resolve the problems and to reach the satisfactory resolutions and these efforts and achievements are universally recognized.

However, for the past few years, some peculiar anti-Japanese campaigns have been started in the U.S., and they have been escalated as the time passed. We are deeply concerned that the new serious friction between Japan and the U.S. has expanded as a result of these campaigns. The reason we express our concerns is that these anti-Japanese activities have been developed in the U.S., but aren't related directly to the national interests of either country. It is our assertion that there is someone of the third world trying to set them up from behind.

Specifically, Chinese-American Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, which was published in July 1997 in the U.S., and the wave of anti-Japanese campaigns agitated by her claims are sitting at the center of this problem. The book's contents do not present verified facts, and furthermore, they represent the quite opposite. As a result, those Japanese who are shocked with such an injustice are not few. For this twisted representation of the historical facts of the 'Nanking Massacre',1 even a monthly Japanese magazine, called Sekai which has been a representative of the group which has admitted the 'Nanking Massacre', can't have helped but express its disagreement and published an unusual explanatory statement

Iris Chang's book is titled as 'The Rape', and subtitled as 'The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II', and it has caused a stirring of the ears of the American people who were not familiar with the incident which happened on December 1937 in an obscure corner of the Far East. The book, which starts with unimaginable satanic atrocities and repeatedly describes such acts, has succeeded in maximizing the hatred of the readers against the Japanese. Moreover, it has caused a political problem to develop. Finally, in August 1999, the state legislature of California passed a resolution for it atrocities, citing the 'Nanking Massacre'.

Needless to say, it is quite understandable for American people, who have kept respect for human rights and fairness as their motto, to raise voices to 'castigate Japan and punish them' after hearing these the false representation of '300,000 Chinese massacred, 20,000 raped'. However, this serious situation should be re-examined if we calmly consider it, because the anti-Japanese campaign is based on the assumption that the 'Nanking Massacre' has surely existed. So we wonder if it is true and how they achieved to exactly verify it.

Why don't they just admit it. It's not even a huge number.

Are there any questions raised by readers of Chang's sadistic book that can possibly compete with the literature of the Marquis de Sade? We wonder if they have had the following questions :
「わずか六週間で市民三十万人が殺され、死体の多くが石油で焼かれたなどというが、そのためにはアウシュビッツ並みの大火葬場が何十箇所も必要であろう。いったい誰があの密閉された城壁空間とその近郊でそんなものを見たのか」
"The book says that over 300,000 citizens were killed and the most of the corpses were burnt by kerosene within six weeks. If it were so, dozens of incinerators as large as that of Auschwitz would have been necessary. Who has ever seen such things within and around the closed space of the walled castle?"
「加えて、『レイプ二万人から八万』という。ソ連兵のベルリン攻略の後は大変な《ベビーブーム》だったと伝えられるが、南京戦後、同市内に日中混血児があふれたなどと誰が事実を記したか」
"Also, the book claims that from 20,000 to 80,000 women were raped. We hear of the enormous number of babies born after fall of Berlin by the Russian Army. Is there a recorded account of the flood of babies that mixed Japanese and Chinese parentage after the fall of Nanking?"

For readers who are equipped with common sense, such questions must abundantly come to mind. Now, let us treat the 'Nanking Massacre' as a murder case. How many corpses have been found? Who are the victims? Who are the eyewitnesses? What are the motives of the offenders? For those basic questions, we must justly prove the facts through fair procedures in criminal suit.

Those who prosecute the 'Nanking Massacre' insist that insist that there were certain number of corpses, and focus on the testimonies of eyewitnesses and also the motives of the offenders. However, the admissibility and probative value of such claims and evidence are not acceptable in the courts of civilized Nations. Surprisingly, these facts have never been known to the western world. But only the false propaganda, which claims that the horrible incident (Nanking Massacre) occurred, is now becoming established in the U.S., as the anti-Japanese activities intended.

For that reason, we have started the following legal approach. Namely, we have tried to treat the so-called 'Nanking Massacre', which was said to have been committed by the Japanese Army during the six weeks starting from December 13, 1937, as a 'murder case (including looting and rapes)'. Also, we have tries to precisely examine whether the crime has been proved or not and objectively verify the fact, using a method based on the Criminal Procedure Act, in view that the Prosecution has responsibility to adduce evidences to show the committed crimes.

In other words, our objective is not to prove that there was no 'Nanking Massacre', but to specify the fact that the testimonies, which claim that there was the 'Nanking Massacre', are not substantiated at all. And we take a position whereby all the facts would be clarified by doing so.

However, as for the Prosecution, all we would like to say is that we are not confronting Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking. Instead, our debate will be focused on the claims of the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party). The reason is that Iris Chang's view is based on the claims of the CCP. We perceive that the origin of the message in the anti-Japanese networks, which press Japan to take responsibilities for war crimes, lies in the CCP.

Our objections may appear to the readers rather too mild. But, the Japanese culture, which has produced the serenity of the Noh play and the Tea ceremony, may be quite opposite contrasted with the Chinese culture, which is festively decorated with gongs and firecrackers. The peculiar Chinese fantasy of such expressions as '30,000 feet of long white hair' may have produced The Rape of Nanking, and in the opposite manner, we would like to develop our arguments in brief and strictly.

For a half century after World War II, Japan has kept silence whenever and however we were falsely accused of this problem. Here, we would like to break the silence for the first time. We will not scream like the Chinese, but set forth our views purely and fairly as an accused standing in the dock of a courthouse, speaking in a low tone of voice, asking the fair judgement of the readers.
筑波大学名誉教授
コレージュ・ド・フランス客員教授
竹本 忠雄
Takemoto Tadao
Emeritus Professor of the University of Tsukuba
Visiting Professor of College de France

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http://www.ne.jp/asahi/unko/tamezou/nankin/alleged/preface.html#preface