Historians publish 'complete history' of Nanking Massacre

One week ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre, the atrocities are fully exposed in a new book published on Thursday, offering new perspectives and more rationality.

"The most significant feature of the 'Complete History of the Nanking Massacre' lies in its rationality, as scholars wrote this book from the perspective of human beings," said Zhang Xianwen, professor of Nanjing University.

The book, published by Nanjing University Press, describes the massacre across three volumes, considered to be the most complete work on the event. Most of the book's content comes from historical documents published from 2005 to 2010.

"A rational perspective leads to a more strict way of selecting material. We would rather abandon unreliable material," said Zhang, who is also chief editor of the book.

"Efforts to discover the truth have arrived in a new era with the publishing of the book," said Sun Zhaiwei, another of the book's writers and a researcher at the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

　　NEW APPROACHES

Japanese troops launched a six-week-long massacre in Nanjing, capital of China at that time, since Dec. 13, 1937 when they conquered the city.

Books and papers on the massacre published in the 1980s focused to fight against the denial claims from the Japanese right-wing scholars, said Zhang Lianhong, deputy chief editor of the book and a history professor at Nanjing Normal University.

Divergence of opinion emerged in some issues, he said, citing differing accounts of the number of victims as an example.

Zhang Lianhong said scholars believed the number was no less than 300,000. They did not give a specific death toll in the book, but provided evidence of the number of victims in multiple chapters.

"We only offered evidence. We would like to let the readers think about it themselves," he said.

"Actually, the precise number of victims is not the most important thing. What really matters is that the Nanking Massacre was a violent invasion on a large scale. A staggering number of civilians and prisoners of war were killed," he said.

The Nanking Massacre was not only the tragedy of Nanjing but a humiliation of human beings, said Sun Zhaiwei.

At least 20,000 women were raped, one third of the city was burned into ruins and hundreds of thousands of people were killed in various cruel ways, Sun said.

"Women were killed after being raped. Some people were buried alive and some were burned to death. Hundreds of thousands people were driven to the river bank and killed with strafes," he said.

The use of the term "sex slaves" to refer to women who were coerced by Japanese soldiers into having sex replaces the use of the term "comfort women," another significant change for the book.

"They are in fact victims of sexual violence, which should be emphasized," Zhang Xianwen said.

Research on the massacre has deepened and broadened during the past decade, as the scholars went to eight countries to collect historical evidence.

The book covers new areas of the psychological and living conditions of the people who lived in Nanjing during the massacre, according to Zhang Lianhong.

Besides the experiences of the victims, more perspectives on Japanese troops and third parties, such as western churchmen, are also contained in the book, he said.

　　DRAW LESSONS FROM HISTORY

The Chinese historians hope people from both China and Japan will draw lessons from the real facts of the history and avoid a repeat of the tragedy.

"The ultimate intention of the book obviously not lies in fanning hatred between the people of the two countries, but to help people find a way to live in peace," Zhang Xianwen said.

Japanese officials from its consulate in Shanghai visited Zhang Xianwen twice in 2005 and 2007 to listen to his opinions on the Nanking Massacre.

"They just listened in silence, and did not raise any questions," he said.

However, Zhang noticed that an announcement on the official website of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon after the visit in 2005, saying that "according to evidence, it was true that Japan hurt the non-combatants after it occupied Nanjing."

Zhang Lianhong said during Sino-Japan research from 2008 to 2010, both sides agreed on the cruelness of the mass killing, with differing opinions on the number of victims.

With the publication of the Nanking Massacre Historical Documents, researchers from all over the world began to take the Chinese historians research as a reliable resource, Zhang Lianhong said.

"Papers and books started to quote the documents frequently and we were also invited to international conferences on Asia issues as speakers," he said.

Zhang said objective research not only received the approbation from international scholars but also changed the attitude of Chinese people.

"People started to discuss the issues with a rational attitude based the historical evidence instead of angry quarrels," he said.

Zhang said that the new book would undoubtedly cast a strong influence on different societies with the improvement that he and his team have made.

The English and Japanese versions of the book are set to be released over the next two years, while other editions will be published in eight different countries.

The writers of the book said they hope "history is history, politics is politics" as research should take no sides.

"Historical research on the tragedy should continue, no matter how relations evolve between China and Japan in the future," Zhang Xianwen said.

"A good future can come only when people face history in the right way," he said.