x-no-archive: yes


NANJING, China (Reuters) - China marked 70 years since Japan's Nanjing
massacre on Thursday, invoking memories of the atrocity to remind
Tokyo that the wartime past remains a bitter backdrop to an improving
relationship.

Sirens wailed, calling citizens to silence, a bell tolled, and tens of
thousands of people, including frail survivors, gathered for the
reopening of a newly expanded massacre memorial in the former national
capital in eastern China.

The six-week wave of killing by Japanese soldiers after Nanjing fell
was among the bloodiest episodes of Japan's invasion of China.
Official
Chinese accounts say 300,000 were killed.

For China, how Japan remembers the "Rape of Nanking" -- as the city
was then called in English -- has become a test of how contrite its
neighbor
is about its brutal occupation of much of the country from the 1930s
up
to 1945.

Aged survivors came out to remind the world of the event. Chen Fubao,
75, clutched a black-and-white photo of his father, who was killed in
the slaughter.

"We hope that the Japanese government, especially those in the
nationalist factions, will admit the truth in history and learn from
the Germans," he told Reuters. "They should not cover up their crimes
any more."

Beijing and Tokyo have been moving in recent months to ease
long-running tensions over history, territory and energy and
commemorative propaganda has avoided harsh words about Japan's
current leaders.

PEACE BELL

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is due in China soon, more than a
year after his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, broke the ice with a visit.
Top Chinese leaders stayed away from the memorial activities in
Nanjing.

But the potency of wartime memories was clear in Thursday's
ceremonies. Tearful survivors, officials and young people struck a
"peace bell" that rang out over the crowd.

Qiu Xiuying, 80, said her mother had been killed in the massacre and
an aunt injured. "So every time there is a memorial, my tears will
naturally flow," she told Reuters.

While China insists that Japanese troops killed 300,000 men, women and
children in the weeks that followed Nanjing's capture, raping,
torturing and mutilating many victims, some Japanese historians say
the number was much lower. Some apologists for Tokyo's military past
deny the massacre even happened.

An Allied war tribunal put the Nanjing death toll at about 142,000.

Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, told Xinhua
news agency that there was no doubting that 300,000 died.

Xinhua accused Japanese doubters of "selective amnesia."

"Curing this disease is not hard and sufferers often fully recover,"
it said. "But when it strikes a country or a nation, treating it is
not easy."

x-no-archive: yes

NANJING, China (Reuters) - China marked 70 years since Japan's Nanjing
massacre on Thursday, invoking memories of the atrocity to remind Tokyo
that the wartime past remains a bitter backdrop to an improving
relationship.

Sirens wailed, calling citizens to silence, a bell tolled, and tens of
thousands of people, including frail survivors, gathered for the
reopening of a newly expanded massacre memorial in the former national
capital in eastern China.

The six-week wave of killing by Japanese soldiers after Nanjing fell was
among the bloodiest episodes of Japan's invasion of China. Official
Chinese accounts say 300,000 were killed.

For China, how Japan remembers the "Rape of Nanking" -- as the city was
then called in English -- has become a test of how contrite its neighbor
is about its brutal occupation of much of the country from the 1930s up
to 1945.

Aged survivors came out to remind the world of the event. Chen Fubao,
75, clutched a black-and-white photo of his father, who was killed in
the slaughter.

"We hope that the Japanese government, especially those in the
nationalist factions, will admit the truth in history and learn from the
Germans," he told Reuters. "They should not cover up their crimes any more."

Beijing and Tokyo have been moving in recent months to ease long-running
tensions over history, territory and energy and commemorative propaganda
has avoided harsh words about Japan's current leaders.

PEACE BELL

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is due in China soon, more than a
year after his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, broke the ice with a visit. Top
Chinese leaders stayed away from the memorial activities in Nanjing.

But the potency of wartime memories was clear in Thursday's ceremonies.
Tearful survivors, officials and young people struck a "peace bell" that
rang out over the crowd.

Qiu Xiuying, 80, said her mother had been killed in the massacre and an
aunt injured. "So every time there is a memorial, my tears will
naturally flow," she told Reuters.

While China insists that Japanese troops killed 300,000 men, women and
children in the weeks that followed Nanjing's capture, raping, torturing
and mutilating many victims, some Japanese historians say the number was
much lower. Some apologists for Tokyo's military past deny the massacre
even happened.

An Allied war tribunal put the Nanjing death toll at about 142,000.

Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, told Xinhua
news agency that there was no doubting that 300,000 died.

Xinhua accused Japanese doubters of "selective amnesia."

"Curing this disease is not hard and sufferers often fully recover," it
said. "But when it strikes a country or a nation, treating > it is not easy."

NANJING, China (Reuters) - China marked 70 years since Japan's Nanjing
massacre on Thursday, invoking memories of the atrocity to remind Tokyo
that the wartime past remains a bitter backdrop to an improving
relationship.