Nagoya Mayor Takayuki Kawamura held talks with Liu Zhiwei, member of the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, and others on the 20th. When referring to the Nanjing Massacre, he said that there were regular battles, but he thought that the massacre never happened, and said that the Japanese army was given preferential treatment in Nanjing.

For Japan, only by sincerely acknowledging history can we gain understanding; For China, only by trying to restore that history can we comfort the dead.

Following the mayor of Nagoya, Japan, Takayuki Kawamura publicly questioned the authenticity of the Nanjing Massacre when he met with the delegation of the Nanjing Municipal Government on the morning of February 20th, the Nanjing Municipal Government issued two statements in succession from the early morning of February1,announcing that Nanjing would suspend its official contacts with the Nagoya Municipal Government on the evening of February1,which is unique among China cities that have always taken "Sino-Japanese friendship" as their diplomatic criterion. China's Foreign Ministry held a press conference on the afternoon of the 22nd. When talking about the denial of the Nanjing Massacre by the mayor of Nagoya, Japan, Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that China has made solemn representations to Japan on this matter and expressed its understanding and support for Nanjing's decision to suspend its contacts with Nagoya.

According to the practice of similar incidents in the past, hackers attacked the website of Nagoya city government at the first time, and a website homepage of the city zoo even posted a slogan "Nanjing Massacre must be acknowledged". Takayuki Kawamura's subsequent attitude is puzzling: on the one hand, he said that his words and deeds were rude and inappropriate, on the other hand, he stressed that he would not withdraw or modify the relevant remarks. Both China and Japan are shouting from a distance. Although they knew there was no real chance to fight with each other, Takashi Kawamura said, "I want to hold an open debate in the local area, and I will go there myself." Zhang Sheng, a professor of history at Nanjing University, made a statement at the Weibo. "I challenge Nagoya Mayor Takayuki Kawamura to openly debate the basic historical facts of the Nanjing Massacre in front of any audience at any time, at any time!"

One word used by Takayuki Kawamura when meeting with the Nanjing delegation may be correct: thorn. The Nanjing Massacre is indeed an unavoidable thorn in Sino-Japanese relations that is about to usher in the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

History cannot be erased.

Zhang Xianwen, director of the Center for the History of the Republic of China at Nanjing University, told China Newsweek that he was full of confidence in any public debate on the Nanjing Massacre. Zhang Xianwen is the editor-in-chief of Historical Collection of Nanjing Massacre, which has published 72 volumes with more than 40 million words. However, the original materials in his hand total more than 50 million words, and it is expected that 80 volumes will be published eventually. "These are the most direct evidence of the Japanese massacre of civilians in Nanjing. If this is a lie, who has the ability to make a 50 million-word lie? "

What's more, these historical materials are not only from China, but also from the United States, Japan, Germany, Russia and Italy. There are both government documents and folk records, including Japanese diaries and letters, reports written by foreign journalists in Nanjing at that time, and observations by foreign missionaries. Zhang Xianwen emphasized that these materials "have both victims, perpetrators and third parties, and all kinds of evidence can confirm each other".

Professor Zhang Sheng has been publishing all kinds of original evidence on his Weibo, such as photos of the remains of China people killed by Japanese troops in Gu Lin Temple (near Nanjing Gulin Park). This photo was taken by American missionary Foster in Nanjing at that time, and now it is in the library of the Theological Seminary of Yale University. His new book, A Study on the History of the Nanjing Massacre, will be published in April this year, and all kinds of original materials can be seen everywhere.

At the earliest time, Takashi Kawamura took his father's "being treated well in Nanjing" as evidence that the Holocaust did not exist. However, at the press conference on the 22nd, Takashi Kawamura said that the reason for making such a statement was "because of the recent new research results and various opinions". Zhang Sheng explained to China Daily that in recent years, there have been some new changes in the composition of the right wing of Newsweek, and some university scholars have joined in. Among them, Professor Dong Zhongye from Asian University and Nakamura, the representative of Showa Institute of History, are famous. Their way of denying the Nanjing Massacre is different from the traditional way of total denial, but focuses on denying one of the evidence chains. "For example, an American experienced the Nanjing Massacre and left some original evidence. Zhang Sheng said that the right wing is rich, so it has achieved extensive results. The published books and papers have not had a great influence on Japanese society, probably because of their deep influence, so Takashi Kawamura has these confident statements.

Zhang Xianwen recalled that in 2005, when the Historical Collection of the Nanjing Massacre was first published, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered the vice consul of the Shanghai Consulate to accompany Japanese military representatives to Nanjing to interview various experts including himself. This interview finally affected the consultation and defense of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet on this issue. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs subsequently issued a statement in official website: According to the available information and evidence, the existence of the Nanjing Massacre cannot be denied. Zhang Xianwen said that although Japan and China have always held different views on the number of victims, Japan has long recognized the principled fact that Japanese troops killed non-combatants and laid down their weapons and captured soldiers in China.

Wu Xianbin, director of Nanjing Folk War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression Museum, emphasized to China Newsweek that all the audio-visual materials and photos he has collected and the public can see are actually not taken by China people themselves, but by foreigners who stayed in Nanjing at that time, or by the Japanese army to show off their military exploits. Zhang Sheng also said that the concept of the Nanjing Massacre was not even put forward by China at the earliest, but came from Dr. Bida of the German Embassy in Beiping on February 30th, 1937. He quoted Stiehl, a reporter from Chicago Daily News, and used this word to describe the situation in Nanjing, and reported it to the German Embassy in China. The original German is "Nanjing Massacre".

Silence is not golden.

After the Nagoya incident, a Weibo was widely circulated: "On June 23rd, 2005, nearly 700 people relayed the list of Jews killed in Auschwitz at the Dutch Theatre in Amsterdam, and spent five days reading 102000 names. The memorial wall of atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima Peace Park, Japan is engraved with the names of 237,062 victims? ? Only 10324 names were recorded in the Holocaust wailing wall, of which 3,000 were from the investigation file of 1946. "

Where does the figure of 300,000 come from? Why can China only provide more than 10,000 names? This is the most common problem faced by Nanjing Massacre researchers. Zhang Sheng and Zhang Xianwen both warned with some dissatisfaction that this kind of problem is exactly what the Japanese right wing wants to see, because their thinking is: If you can't name it, the Holocaust won't exist.

Zhang Sheng said that the Nazi massacre of Jews was completely an industrialized way of killing. Jews are held in concentration camps, and there are detailed lists and pamphlets, so it is easy to restore more names. However, in China at that time, the household registration system was very imperfect. Moreover, under Japanese occupation, it is impossible for non-governmental organizations to conduct any investigation. In addition, the Japanese massacre mode "even the Germans in the Middle Ages laughed at their cruelty and preferred to use bayonets to save bullets". For a long time after the war, because of the Cold War, China had an important political expression that "the Japanese people were also victims", that is, "at that time, it was mainly a few militarists who invaded China. Even so, the figure of 300,000 did not come from China at first, but was mentioned in a secret telegram sent by then Japanese Foreign Minister Hirota Hong Wen to Japanese diplomatic agencies in the United States. This document is now in the National Archives. As circumstantial evidence, British journalist Chancellor provided his British colleague Tian Bolie with a news report sent to London. The report quoted Father Rao, a Frenchman in charge of the Shanghai refugee area, as saying, "He is very sure that the number of 300,000 civilian victims in China is correct". Zhang Xianwen said that after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the National Government actually set up several committees to investigate the atrocities of the Japanese army. " We went door-to-door and found out all kinds of ways of being killed by the Japanese army. These questionnaires conform to the norms of oral history. "But in fact, this work has only been done for two years. When the civil war escalated, the investigation stopped and these materials were kept in the archives. After 1949, various actions in the mainland continued. It was not until June 1982 that the Japanese Ministry of Education revised the textbook that China hastily restarted the study of the Nanjing Massacre. " Most of the survivors left Nanjing and gradually died. Now only two or three hundred survivors can be investigated, and it is impossible to restore a list of 300 thousand people. "

In addition, many people were disappointed with the performance of the Nanjing municipal government, because no one stood up to protest at the scene where Takashi Kawamura said these words. Tong Zeng, the first Japanese non-governmental claimant to China and the president of the Japanese non-governmental fishing association, told China Newsweek with emotion that such a situation could not happen between South Korea, Japan and. The Jews stubbornly kidnapped Eichmann back to Israel for trial, but we used the principle of "returning good for evil" on the premise of "China-Israel friendship". Shintaro Ishihara supported Takayuki Kawamura in this incident. He never admitted the Nanjing Massacre, but China invited him to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games as a VIP. "Is this courtesy connivance?"

After setting off such a big wave, the Nanjing delegation did not return to China immediately, but then went to Europe to continue its visit. Zhang Sheng relayed the news in his own Weibo, and said meaningfully, "Silence is sometimes not golden." (Reporter Li Jingrui)