We don't have to be nationalists to correct the misunderstanding
Ms. Tabuchi of NYT tweeted as follows in September:
In December 1937, when Japanese Army occupied Nanking, it killed many people, partly civilian. It is a historical fact nobody denies. It would be questionable to describe it as "Massacre" or not, but there can be no excuse for Japanese Army to invade into Nanking. Even Japanese didn't know why.
Some say the "massacre" that killed 300,000 people was the propaganda of Chinese Nationalist Party. It might be correct, but it can't be the reason to say the event in Nanking was an illusion. As a matter of international law, the occupation of Nanking was clearly an invasion. Since the Non-belligerency Pact in 1928 that Japan ratified, it was illegal to attack other coutries without fear of invasion.
Western media, including NYT, have treated comfort women problem as "historical revisionism" as Nanking massacre. They say that denying abduction of confort women is like denying Holocaust. Readers stop thinking there without inspecting the facts in detail.
The Asahi admitted in their article to retract wrong articles,
Far-right magazine selling out in Japan after declaring "comfort women" bogus, says Nanking Massacre next pic.twitter.com/9CDkfGDgqb
— Hiroko Tabuchi (@HirokoTabuchi) 2014, 9月 2
Good point. This is the Japanese monthly magazine "WiLL". It is extremely right and nationalistic, but sells almost 100,000 copies per month. Mr. Nobukatsu Fujioka writes "Next we go to Nanking Massacre" for only three lines, but it is misleading to confuse it with comfort women.In December 1937, when Japanese Army occupied Nanking, it killed many people, partly civilian. It is a historical fact nobody denies. It would be questionable to describe it as "Massacre" or not, but there can be no excuse for Japanese Army to invade into Nanking. Even Japanese didn't know why.
Some say the "massacre" that killed 300,000 people was the propaganda of Chinese Nationalist Party. It might be correct, but it can't be the reason to say the event in Nanking was an illusion. As a matter of international law, the occupation of Nanking was clearly an invasion. Since the Non-belligerency Pact in 1928 that Japan ratified, it was illegal to attack other coutries without fear of invasion.
Western media, including NYT, have treated comfort women problem as "historical revisionism" as Nanking massacre. They say that denying abduction of confort women is like denying Holocaust. Readers stop thinking there without inspecting the facts in detail.
The Asahi admitted in their article to retract wrong articles,
No official documents were found that directly showed forcible taking away by the military on the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan, where the people living there were made "subjects" of the Japanese Empire under Japanese colonial rule. Prostitution agents were prevalent due to the poverty and patriarchal family system. For that reason, even if the military was not directly involved, it is said it was possible to gather many women through such methods as work-related scams and human trafficking.They recognize the difference between military abduction and human trafficking. The former was unnecessary because the latter was possible -- NYT and American Congressmen confused them.
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