Nanjing Massacre-denying Japanese hotel boss sparks Tokyo protest

[webfact]

Nanjing Massacre-denying Japanese hotel boss sparks Tokyo protest

 

Chinese residents in Japan march at a protest against theJapanese hotel chain APA in Tokyo, Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo February 5, 2017. The slogan in the placard reads, ' We like Japan, We dislike Motoya (name of hotel chain APA's president). Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

 

TOKYO (Reuters) - About 200 protesters marched through the streets of Tokyo's Shinjuku district on Sunday carrying banners to protest a hotel chain under fire for books its president wrote denying the Nanjing Massacre in wartime China ever happened.

 

Tokyo-based hotel and real estate developer APA Group is at the centre of a furore over books by its founder and president, Toshio Motoya, which contain his revisionist views on history and are placed in every room of the company's 400-plus APA Hotels.

 

Motoya, using the pen name Seiji Fuji, wrote of the Nanjing Massacre that "these acts were all said to be committed by the Japanese army, but this is not true." He also denied stories of Korean women forced to work as prostitutes in wartime military brothels, the so-called "comfort women".

 

Video shot by eyewitnesses showed protesters carrying banners saying "Cherish Peace" and "Resist APA resolutely and defend national dignity" in both Chinese and Japanese marching through a busy shopping district of Tokyo. Organisers said some 200 people took part.

 

They were met by counter-protesters carrying signs saying "Japan is a country with freedom of speech, and you should change China into the country that has the right of free speech as well." Both groups dispersed without incident once past the closest APA Hotel on the march route.

 

Tokyo police were unable to give an estimate of the protest numbers and the APA Hotel could not immediately comment. There was no statement on the unlisted company's website.

 

China says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in Nanjing from December 1937 to January 1938. A post-war Allied tribunal put the death toll at about half that number.

 

To the fury of China, some conservative Japanese politicians and academics deny the massacre took place, or they put the death toll much lower.

 

The APA Hotel said last week that it would temporarily remove the materials from a hotel being used to house athletes during the Sapporo 2017 Asian Winter Games competition starting later this month.

 

Chinese tourism authorities have urged tour operators to sever ties with the hotel chain after an escalating row over the matter, and there have been calls for a boycott on social media against both the hotel and travel to Japan.

 

Motoya told Reuters in an email last month that Chinese made up only 5 percent of the guests at his hotels in Japan and he was not worried about the impact of any potential boycott.

 

(Writing by Elaine Lies; editing by Jason Neely)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-06

[NumbNut]

Good to see a demo about this in Japan, encouraging to see some Japanese folks are aware of the true role their military played during WWII. All the more amazing really when you consider that the Japanese education system does not teach their kids the full horrific scope of Japanese military activity during  WWII. 

 

And the odd Japanese tourist wonders why they cop grief sometimes when they travel... because they don't know their countries' history. An unpalatable truth is still the truth, and no amount of revisionism ala David Irving is going to change it.

 

The Japanese people owe it to themselves to learn this.

 

 

[Ulysses G.]

26 minutes ago, NumbNut said:

Good to see a demo about this in Japan, encouraging to see some Japanese folks are aware of the true role their military played during WWII. All the more amazing really when you consider that the Japanese education system does not teach their kids the full horrific scope of Japanese military activity during  WWII. 

 

And the odd Japanese tourist wonders why they cop grief sometimes when they travel... because they don't know their countries' history. An unpalatable truth is still the truth, and no amount of revisionism ala David Irving is going to change it.

 

The Japanese people owe it to themselves to learn this.

 

 

Agreed. The Japanese mostly conduct themselves well today, but Japanese soldiers were barbaric in WW2. Unfortunately, the truth has been hidden from much of the populace today.

[ExpatOilWorker]

I will like to see if Japanese residence in China marched through the streets of Beijing with banners protesting how Beijing deny and suppress the Tinanmen Square massacre?

Edited February 6, 2017 by ExpatOilWorker

[NumbNut]

53 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

I will like to see if Japanese residence in China marched through the streets of Beijing with banners protesting how Beijing deny and suppress the Tinanmen Square massacre?

 

So what are you trying to say? That  the Tiananmen Square  Massacre cancels out the numerous, too many to mention atrocities carried out against the Chinese people by the invading Japanese during WWII? So a massacre by a totalitarian state against its own people is equal to the catalogue of Japanese war crimes committed during WWII against the Chinese, and by extension all the asian peoples invaded by Japanese forces during WWII?

 

Ridiculous position to take!

 

 

 

[Prbkk]

1 hour ago, NumbNut said:

Good to see a demo about this in Japan, encouraging to see some Japanese folks are aware of the true role their military played during WWII. All the more amazing really when you consider that the Japanese education system does not teach their kids the full horrific scope of Japanese military activity during  WWII. 

 

And the odd Japanese tourist wonders why they cop grief sometimes when they travel... because they don't know their countries' history. An unpalatable truth is still the truth, and no amount of revisionism ala David Irving is going to change it.

 

The Japanese people owe it to themselves to learn this.

 

 

True and in fairness to the Japanese, when they do finally understand things they have never been taught they are remorseful, as evidenced by reading comments in the visitor book at the museum at the war graves in Kanchanaburi ( the book might or might not still be there as I haven't been for 30+ years).

On the other hand, China will never let this go, even if the Japanese apologise a million times....and all to do with politics/territoriality rather than the victims.

[NumbNut]

Yes, fair points Prbkk, the Japanese folks I have met on my travels have been great people. Met a top bloke one night on the turps in Sukhumvit last year actually, he was on a business trip to Bangers with his wife and he claimed his grandmother was a survivor of Hiroshima! Great afternoon/evening chatting with that bloke and his lovely wife, really enjoyed it. Very intelligent man, and he was well aware of Japanese war crimes during WWII.

 

You can't carry a dislike of a nation down to individual citizens, surely not??

 

 

 

 

[ExpatOilWorker]

55 minutes ago, NumbNut said:

 

So what are you trying to say? That  the Tiananmen Square  Massacre cancels out the numerous, too many to mention atrocities carried out against the Chinese people by the invading Japanese during WWII? So a massacre by a totalitarian state against its own people is equal to the catalogue of Japanese war crimes committed during WWII against the Chinese, and by extension all the asian peoples invaded by Japanese forces during WWII?

 

Ridiculous position to take!

 

 

 

 

Nothing gets canceled out and every single human life lost is one too many. China has murdered, butchered and raped more innocent people than any other country on this planet. Until they sit down, point their finger at themselves and acknowledge their own bloody history, they have no right to dictate what other countries right or wrongfully do.

Edited February 6, 2017 by ExpatOilWorker

[wreckingcountry]

I will like to see if Japanese residence in China marched through the streets of Beijing with banners protesting how Beijing deny and suppress the Tinanmen Square massacre?

Yes Chinese residents using their civil rights which they don't have in their own Facist,dictatorial Country!


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[sandemara]

Japanese history books printed especially for the  country's education system still deny the many Japanese war atrocities and portray Japan as a "victim" of WW2.  And people express amazement about Japanese ignorance and denials of realities that still cut deep in victims' families a generation or two later.

[Enoon]

1 hour ago, sandemara said:

Japanese history books printed especially for the  country's education system still deny the many Japanese war atrocities and portray Japan as a "victim" of WW2.  And people express amazement about Japanese ignorance and denials of realities that still cut deep in victims' families a generation or two later.

 

Meanwhile, back in Thailand, what is taught about the de-facto collaboration of a "Vichy" style government with Japanese aggressive war (Thai forces took part in operations against the Allies) and atrocities perpetrated upon POWs in WW2?

 

Don't quote the "there wasn't a proper declaration of war" story.

 

They did it, and no-one was in the slightest bit troubled by war crimes tribunals post-war. 

 

Nor are they troubled by knowledge of those crimes now.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2017 by Enoon

[NeoDinosaw]

7 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

I will like to see if Japanese residence in China marched through the streets of Beijing with banners protesting how Beijing deny and suppress the Tinanmen Square massacre?

The two events are not comparable !

[NumbNut]

6 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

 

Nothing gets canceled out and every single human life lost is one too many. China has murdered, butchered and raped more innocent people than any other country on this planet. Until they sit down, point their finger at themselves and acknowledge their own bloody history, they have no right to dictate what other countries right or wrongfully do.

 

Stop deflecting away from the subject of this thread. There is no question that the communist regime of China has acted abominably towards their own citizens, at numerous times during their short history. That is indisputable, and no one I've seen so far on this thread has said otherwise. Maybe you should start your own thread if you've got an axe to grind about Chinese government crimes against their own citizens.

 

But what's also indisputable is the enormity and mind-numbingly numerous Japanese war crimes committed during WWII against both the Chinese people themselves and any other nations unlucky enough to get invaded by them. And it's great to see these protests taking place in Japan. If only a few Japanese are now curious to catch up on their history then this demo has served its purpose.

[NumbNut]

2 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

Meanwhile, back in Thailand, what is taught about the de-facto collaboration of a "Vichy" style government with Japanese aggressive war (Thai forces took part in operations against the Allies) and atrocities perpetrated upon POWs in WW2?

 

Don't quote the "there wasn't a proper declaration of war" story.

 

They did it, and no-one was in the slightest bit troubled by war crimes tribunals post-war. 

 

Nor are they troubled by knowledge of those crimes now.

 

 

 

Just putting the Thai elite and the political aspect of Thailand's involvement during WWII to one side, a lot of allied WWII POW's also survived the war in Thailand down to the help they received from the common people. A lot of Thai's gave their lives trying to help POW's in dire straits, and that should never be forgotten.

 

I do agree though Enoon, it would be great to see Thailand drastically overhaul their syllabus and teach their kids what really happened in WWII. Then you might stop seeing kids walking around with swastika t shirts on eh!

Edited February 6, 2017 by NumbNut

[ExpatOilWorker]

2 hours ago, NeoDinosaw said:

The two events are not comparable !

 

Well, then thrown in Mao's little experiment which is also being erased from Chinese history. The Chinese should sort out their own history before they start lecturing anybody else.

 

 

[oldlakey]

14 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

I will like to see if Japanese residence in China marched through the streets of Beijing with banners protesting how Beijing deny and suppress the Tinanmen Square massacre?

Been reading Japanese school text books have we

[oldlakey]

4 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

 

Well, then thrown in Mao's little experiment which is also being erased from Chinese history. The Chinese should sort out their own history before they start lecturing anybody else.

 

 

Nothing, absolutely nothing excuses the Japanese atrocities that took place through  out China or anywhere else during the thirties and forties

[oldlakey]

11 hours ago, wreckingcountry said:

Yes Chinese residents using their civil rights which they don't have in their own Facist,dictatorial Country!


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They are Communists, NOT FASCISTS, for christ sake man

Edited February 6, 2017 by oldlakey