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China Youth Daily Beijing, Dec. 10th (Journalist: Zhang Lei) As the national memorial day for the victims in Nanjing Massacre on Dec. 13th is coming, Tong Zeng, Chairman of the Chinese Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan, wrote to the Japanese government and Prime Minister for the eighth time, asking Japan to apologize for the Nanjing Massacre 84 years ago and compensate the victims and survivors.
On Dec. 9th, the Chinese Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan sent the letter by express delivery to Tarumi Hideo, Ambassador of the Japanese Embassy in China, and it was signed and received on Dec. 10th.
In 1990, Tong Zeng published a ten-thousand-word claim - “There’s No Time to Delay for China to Claim Compensation from Japan”, setting off a Chinese folk claim movement against Japan. When China established the memorial day for the victims in Nanjing Massacre in 2014, Tong Zeng wrote to the Japanese government for the first time, asking Japan to apologize and compensate for the Nanjing Massacre.
Compared with the contents of the previous seven letters, Tong Zeng told the journalist of China Youth Daily: “The past seven letters to the Japanese government focused on expressing our national feelings. In fact, after World War II, the International Tribunal has recognized the facts of the Nanjing Massacre, and many people in China and Japan have also been investigating and studying the truth of the Nanjing Massacre. The point of putting those contents as the main body of my eighth letter is that numerous facts prove that the Nanjing Massacre is an irrefutable crime against humanity committed by Japan. The Japanese government's apology is to comply with the public opinion of China and Japan and prevent the recurrence of war tragedies. "
The letter reads as follows:
A Letter to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
(entrusted to Ambassador Tarumi Hideo)
I am Tong Zeng, Chairman of the Chinese Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan, and an ordinary Chinese civilian.
Once again, December 13th, a day that should never be forgotten and symbolizes a disaster for humanity in history - the public memorial day for the victims in Nanjing Massacre, is coming. On that day, the Chinese officials and civilians will hold a national public memorial in the square of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders to mourn the 300,000 innocent compatriots who were brutally slaughtered 84 years ago.
84 years ago, on December 13th, 1937, the Japanese army entered the city of Nanjing and wantonly committed arson, murder, rape and plunder. The scale and fellness of the slaughter were rarely seen in the world. After the war, the International Military Tribunal set up two tribunals, the Nuremberg Trials and the Tokyo Trials. The Nuremberg Trials recognized the inhuman massacre of Jews by the Nazis; the Tokyo Trials affirmed that the invading Japanese army carried out the Nanjing Massacre in an organized, planned and purposeful manner. At that time, the Chinese military court in Nanjing conducted a just trial on the Japanese war criminal Hisao Tani, who commanded the Nanjing Massacre, and sentenced him to death. In addition to punishing war criminals, the purpose of post-war international criminal trial is to truly record history. In the 1980s, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders was built up in Nanjing, China, showing the world the hard evidence of the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanjing. In 2014, China designated December 13th as the national public memorial day for victims in Nanjing Massacre. On October 9th, 2015, the Archives of the Nanjing Massacre were officially listed as the Memory of the World Register.
In the early 1990s, I received letters from survivors and families of the Nanjing Massacre, who complained of wartime atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanjing. In 1994, I recommended Ms. Li Xiuying, who miraculously survived after being stabbed by the Japanese army for 37 times in the Nanjing Massacre, to a Japanese lawyer group and filed a lawsuit in a court in Tokyo. In the end, the Japanese court ruled for the first time that the Japanese army committed the Nanjing Massacre. Following that, Li Xiuying filed a lawsuit in Japan to protect her reputation and won that case once again. The Japanese court also recognized the fact of the Nanjing Massacre. Another survivor, Ms. Xia Shuqin, also won a case of reputation right in a Japanese court, which once again recognized the fact of the Nanjing Massacre. And the above two transnational cases of reputation right were both represented by Japanese lawyers. In 1985, Professor Gao Xingzu of the History Department of Nanjing University officially published the Chinese version of The Japanese Aggression Against China - Nanjing Massacre, which fully disclosed the whole story of the massacre for the first time. Chinese-American writer Iris Chang published a historical account in English, The Rape of Nanjing: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, in 1997 to mark the 60th anniversary of the massacre.
After leaving office, the former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama visited China for many times and visited the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre to apologize for the aggression and atrocities of the Japanese army at that time. On February 24th, 2017, the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami published his full-length masterpiece Killing Commedatore, which clearly mentioned that the Japanese army committed a massacre in Nanjing. Tamaki Matsuoka, a Japanese female teacher, spent more than four years in Japan interviewing more than 250 Japanese veterans who participated in the Nanjing Massacre. She compiled and published The Battle of Nanjing–a Search of Sealed Memory, a collection of testimonies of 102 Japanese veterans who invaded China. This oral historical book exposed the monstrous crimes committed by Japanese militarism against the Chinese people in the wartime. Hiroyuki Sugi, a Japanese entrepreneur whose father took part in the Japanese invasion against China and committed unpardonable crimes, bowed in apology to the victims of the Nanjing Massacre in front of a wall at the Memorial Hall for the victims in Nanjing Massacre. Since 1986, Japanese “Green Atonement” civilian groups have come to Nanjing to repent, and they have planted trees to mourn the Chinese victims who were brutally killed by the Japanese invaders. Japanese monks also came to Nanjing to apologize for the Nanjing Massacre. A Japanese monk named Ryuzo Iwata, who was in his 80s, came to Nanjing in 2005 and did not eat for three days, kneeling on the street to express his apology. Sayoko Yamaguchi, a researcher at the Nishi Hongwanji in Japan, has been dedicated to finding and spreading the truth about the Nanjing Massacre since she arrived in Nanjing in 1987. In particular, Ryutaro Honda, a Japanese veteran who participated in the war of aggression against China, went on a lecture tour in Japan, acknowledging the Nanjing Massacre and kneeling on Lugou Bridge in 2005, hoping to be forgiven and redeemed. Shiro Azuma, another veteran of Japan's aggression against China, knelt in front of the Nanjing Massacre Monument. He came to China seven times to apologize and repent. More noteworthy is Japanese military correspondent Katsuichi Honda, who began interviewing survivors in Nanjing in the 1970s, has been revealing the historical truth of the Nanjing Massacre to Japanese people. In the early morning of May 14, 2018, Japanese TV broadcast an investigation documentary on the Nanjing Massacre. In the documentary, Japanese veterans who participated in the Massacre described how they killed Chinese prisoners on December 16th and 17th, 1937, and admitted that they killed tens of thousands of Chinese people in Nanjing at that time!
Of course, we also learned that after the war, the Japanese government's practice of ignoring historical facts directly led to a serious retrogression in Japanese society’s understanding of the war. In addition, some extreme right-wing groups in Japan have been denying and tampering with the truth of the war and the Nanjing Massacre, and constantly beautifying the Japanese militarist crimes against humanity in World War II, which led the Japanese nation to collectively forget the history of the war of aggression. However, over the past 30 years, I have also seen many Japanese people tell the truth about the Japanese war of aggression and the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese society. Many Japanese lawyers and citizens have supported and helped China’s victims of World War II to file claims against Japan for nearly 30 years. There are also some Japanese citizen groups that spontaneously resist the textbooks beautifying the war of aggression. Besides, various research associations and non-governmental organizations have been investigating the truth of the war.
Although there are strange theories denying the Nanjing Massacre in post-war Japanese society, a large number of facts I listed above about maintaining the historical truth in China and Japan deserve your high attention. Here, on behalf of the Chinese Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan, I would like to express to you the desire of tens of thousands of survivors of World War II and 300,000 souls in heaven: that is, to ask the Japanese government represented by Prime Minister Kishida to apologize for the atrocities of the Nanjing Massacre 84 years ago and compensate the victims and their survivors.
This is my eighth letter to you for eight consecutive years. Today, I strongly urge the newly appointed Prime Minister Kishida and his cabinet to correct the consistent practice of shirking war responsibility in the past and admit Japan’s guilt in the war on this year’s public memorial day of the Nanjing Massacre. This is what the majority of peace-loving people in China and around the world expect. Please bravely undertake the mission of justice: face the truth and keep history in mind. I would like to reiterate the purpose of my letter today to ask you to sincerely apologize and compensate the Chinese people for the atrocities of the Nanjing Massacre!
Tong Zeng
Chairman of
Chinese Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan
Dec. 9th, 2021
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