Air raid sirens sounded in the Chinese city of Nanjing yesterday, 75 years after Japanese soldiers embarked on mass killing and rape, with the Asian giants’ ties riven over a territorial row.
The two countries — the world’s second and third-largest economies — have extensive trade and business links, but the weight of Japan’s wartime atrocities still bears heavily on their relationship.
Nearly 10,000 people sang the Chinese national anthem at a commemoration at the Nanjing Massacre Museum, as soldiers in dress uniforms carried memorial wreaths across a stage and officials urged remembrance of the past.
Photo: Reuters
Beforehand an elderly woman cried as she placed flowers by the names of family members listed among the victims on a gray stone wall, and a group of Chinese and Japanese Buddhist monks chanted sutras to pray for world peace.
“We are here to recall history, grieve for compatriots who suffered and died, and educate the people ... about the lessons of history,” said Nanjing Communist Party Secretary Yang Weize (楊衛澤), the only government official who spoke.
China says 300,000 civilians and soldiers died in a spree of killing, rape and destruction in the six weeks after the Japanese military entered the then-capital on Dec. 13, 1937.
Some foreign academics put the number of deaths lower, including China historian Jonathan Spence, who estimates that 42,000 soldiers and citizens were killed and 20,000 women raped, many of whom later died.
Fewer than 200 survivors remain, according to Chinese estimates. One of them, Li Zhong, 87, said he can never forgive, recalling how people had to restrain a man who grabbed a knife to kill Japanese soldiers after his wife was raped.
“There are fewer and fewer of us survivors every year,” he said. “We must never forget history.”
Kai Satoru, the son of a Japanese soldier who served in China, was among the hand-picked audience, which included Chinese students, soldiers and government officials, as well as Japanese NGO representatives.
“I am here to admit the crimes. They [Japanese soldiers] competed to kill people,” he said.
The 75th anniversary has taken on added meaning given the poor state of bilateral ties, a Chinese academic said.
“We need to remain on serious alert about the tendency in Japan to deny the fact of Japan’s wartime aggression,” Wu Jinan (吳寄南) of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies said. “The anniversary may only cool relations further to reach a freezing point. Currently, it’s hard to see any signs of improvement.”
Protests against Japan erupted in Chinese cities earlier this year, causing an estimated US$100 million in damage and losses to Japanese firms, after Tokyo nationalized three of the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea. The islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan, are also claimed by Taiwan.
Chinese dissidents say the Chinese Communist Party nurtures anti-Japanese sentiment as part of its claim to a right to rule. Beijing typically cracks down on public protests, but the anti-Japan demonstrations were allowed to take place.
A Japanese diplomat, who declined to be named, said Tokyo hoped for an improvement in relations after his country holds general elections in a few days’ time and China’s own leadership transition is completed next year.
However, some ultra-conservative Japanese politicians dispute that atrocities ever took place in Nanjing.
Japan says it has apologized to Asian countries, citing a 2005 statement by then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, who expressed “deep remorse and heartfelt apology” in a reiteration of an earlier pronouncement in 1995.
In an inconclusive joint study two years ago, the Japanese side pointed to “various estimates” for the number of deaths, ranging from as low as 20,000 to 200,000.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in