From: Ignatius Ding <ding@HPSMTC1.CUP.HP.COM>
Subject:      55th Anniversary of The Nanjing Massacre
Reply-To: Ignatius Ding <ding@HPSMTC1.CUP.HP.COM>
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 01:56:07 GMT

                     * * * P R E S S   R E L E A S E * * *


      Japan's ruthless invasion of China is termed an "advance."  The 1937 rape
of Nanjing, in which imperial troops massacred thousands of Chinese civilians,
is deemed problematic because of "muddled factual data."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

      Still, Japanese schools have done a highly inadequate job of teaching the
facts about the country's aggression.  This year, for example, the Education
Ministry insisted that a textbook passage that said "over 70,000 people were
reportedly killed by the Japanese imperial army" in Nanjing be changed to "a
large number of Chinese people were killed."  Many Japanese scholars are
appalled at such censorship.


                                        - Time Magazine, December 2, 1991 Issue

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      Fifty-five years ago, the Japanese Imperial Army took Nanjing on December
13th of 1937.  The slaughter of innocent civilians, babies and elders, and the
rape of Chinese women, from grade school kids to 85-year old, did not stop for
a whole month.  More than three hundred thousand of Nanjing residents perished
in the rampage.  It was the most outrageous criminal act among all that the
deadly invasion force did in China.  The Chinese people and their government
forgave and decided to forfeit the war reparation after World War II.  The
decision was partly due to the fact that the Japanese civilians had already
suffered the severe backlash in the war torn country after its defeat.

      The Japanese government never formally apologized or admitted its guilt
of genocide.  The Japanese Emperor Akihito merely expressed his personal regret
of the wounds the Japanese having inflicted on the Chinese population during
the war Not even the war when he visited China in October, 1992.  Yet, the
Japanese government not only attempts to run away from the past by continuing
to lie to its own people, but also accuses the Chinese of making up the story
of Nanjing Massacre to tarnish the Japanese good standing in the international
community.  The truth that the millions of Chinese actually died in the hands
of the imperial army seems somewhat incompatible with Japanese new capitalist
image.  But enough is enough.  The Japanese radical rightwingers' desire for
historical amnesia is not likely to make the memory of the Bataan death march,
the Day of Infamy, or the rape of Nanjing go away.  Change of history, or more
precisely speaking, change of the contents of history textbooks won't wipe out
the blood.  The conduct of the Japanese officials is UNACCEPTABLE.

      On December 13, 1992, the Alliance for Preserving the Truth of Sino-Japan
War (APTWSJ), a Cupertino, California based organization, will sponsor a
memorial ceremony followed by a seminar to examine and discuss many aspects of
of the 1937 tragedy.  The meeting will be held at the Chinese American Culture
Center, 1269 Forgewood Avenue, Sunnyvale between 2PM and 5PM.  The program will
include eyewitness testimonies, a brief review of a documentary film of the
Nanjing Massacre by its producer, and a panel discussion of the historic
background of the Japanese invasion, the reborn Asian superpower, Japan, in the
current international political and economic climate, and the reincarnation of
the Japanese military imperialism.  Evidences of war crime presented will
include pictures, slides, and video tape recordings.

      The event is part of a global grassroots movement by the Chinese
descendants to protest in various countries the absurd attempt by the Japanese
government to cover up the truth.  There is no ill feeling or hatred against
the Japanese people because the history tells us that the Japanese civilians
were also the real victims of the militarists as well.  It is merely to set the
record straight and to educate the general public.  Everyone is welcome.
Invitations will be extended to the Consul General of Japan in San Francisco
and the local American, Japanese, and Chinese press media.


                                         Alliance for Preserving the
                                           Truth of Sino-Japan War
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china