Category: Editorial

Japanese : https://i-rich.org/?p=2643

Yamagami Shingo
Counselor
International Research Instutitute of Controversial Histories

In books like The Rape of Nanking (1996), written by Iris Chang, and Japan’s Holocaust (2024), written by Bryan Mark Rigg, among those Americans who strongly accuse Japan over war-time history issues, there is a tendency toward discussing the war and post-war settlement in terms of comparison with Nazi Germany.

This is affected by the fact that the post-war settlement started with the Nuremberg trials attempting to condemn Nazis and the Tokyo trials to condemn “militarists.”

Based on the fact that the war was mainly fought between the Axis Powers and the Allied Powers, it is understandable that the Allied Powers prefer to discuss Japan and Germany in the same basket. However, the respective strategic environments and goals to be achieved widely differed.

It was well known that, even under the tripartite pact among Japan, Germany, and Italy, there was hardly any cooperation among the three countries in waging war. Some point out that if the Japanese Army had not attacked Pearl Harbor but advanced to the Malay Peninsula and Singapore and then attacked India from behind, the British Empire would have collapsed. There was no such co-operation between Germany and Japan. Faced with the British's resilient resistance in the Battle of Britain, Hitler changed his course toward the Soviet Union. However, there was no joint operation to sandwich the Soviet Union conducted by Germany and Japan.

Japan at that time did not adopt the northward advance plan that the Soviet Union feared, but instead took the southward advance plan and declared war on the United States, while Germany tried to avoid entering such a war. The way the war developed tells us that the Japan-Germany alliance was a mere “marriage of convenience.”

Moreover, it must be noted that in the background of Japan’s difficult battle on the Chinese front, a group of German military advisors helped the Republic of China to strengthen the defense in Shanghai and Nanjing and enabled the Chinese military to strongly fight back against Japan.

The difference of actions between Japan and Germany

The most important difference was what Japan and Germany did.

In the case of Germany, the issue confronting them was the act of killing systematically and in a planned manner 6 million Jewish people in a peaceful backyard far from the war front. Imperial Japan did not join the anti-Semitism. Japan has never attempted to annihilate a particular people, whether Chinese or Koreans, let alone Jews.

For instance, in 1940, the Japanese consul Sugihara Chiune, stationed in Lithuania, kept issuing transit visas to Jews who were fleeing from the Nazi persecution so that they could pass through Japan, Thus, several thousand Jews were able to flee to safe places in the United States, Australia and elsewhere via Japan, through his devoted efforts, which was called “Visa for Life.” The descendants of the saved Jews are said to amount to a hundred thousand. Owing to this remarkable humanistic achievement, Sugihara was honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Israeli government. He was the only honoree among the Japanese people. Army Major General (later Lieutenant General) Higuchi Kiichiro, Chief of Harbin Army Special Unit, built the “Higuchi route,” enabling Jews rushing to the Manchurian border fleeing from Europe to pass through Manchuria and escape to safe places.

Activities regarding postwar settlements

In the case of Germany, because of the special situation in which the country was divided into eastern and western states for a long time, Germany could not conclude a peace treaty as Japan did. Under the unstable conditions, not knowing when the national division could end, Germany has been making a huge number of payments in the form of individual compensation for the victims of Nazi persecution. Nazi criminal acts, mainly the Holocaust, had been systematically committed before World War II started, and most of the victims were civilians under German rule and occupation. It was an anti-humanistic crime, different from the usual war crimes. Incidentally, in the Tokyo trials, there were no defendants charged with the “crime against humanity.”

On the other hand, since there has been no compensation by the state, Poland, for example, has been demanding compensation from Germany even today.

As for Japan, following the system of post-war settlement widely accepted by the international community, Japan concluded the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the United States and other Allied Powers, bilateral peace  and relevant treaties with each of the other countries concerned, conclusively settling the issues of World-War II related compensation, property and claims among the countries.

Among the actions taken based on treaties and other agreements, there were the abandonment of territories such as the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, and the Kuril Islands, as well as overseas properties owned by Japan. The total sum is estimated to be 20 to 30 billion dollars at the then value. In addition, for compensation and economic cooperation, nearly 950 billion yen was provided, most of which was paid in the 1950s and 60s, and the problems concerning compensation, property, and claims have been legally resolved.

Although at that time the values of the yen and dollar were different and Japan’s economic power was small, Japan did its best under the economic and financial environment Japan was in at that time as faithfully as possible. For example, as compensation to the Philippines, where the fiercest battles were fought between Japan and the United States, 550 million dollars were paid based on the agreement concluded in 1956. Supposedly, this sum was equivalent to 58.5% of Japan’s foreign currency reserve at that time and 18.2% of the annual national budget.

Apologies

The criticism that “Germany apologized, but Japan did not” is a cliché used by the Chinese Communist Party in brandishing the historical card. Facts clearly show that such criticism is a unilateral “postwar propaganda” closely resembling the war propaganda in the past.

In Germany, President Weizsacker stated to the following in his famous speech in 1985:

”There is no such thing as the guilt or innocence of an entire nation. Guilt is, like innocence, not collective, but personal.” On the other hand, the Germans are “responsible for historical consequence,” and “All of us, whether guilty or not, whether old or young, must accept the past. We are all affected by its consequence and liable for it.” This is an essentially historical view rooted in the Christian tradition. And in his speech, the President emphasized that as a way of fulfilling the “responsibility,” the Germans accept the past and never forget it.

Another famous speech was made by German President Roman Herzog during the ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising held in 1994: “I bow my head to those people who rose and fought in Warsaw and to all the Polish victims of the war. I ask for forgiveness for what has been done to you by Germans.” In the speech in German, he used the word “bitten um Vergebung, ”meaning to beg someone for pardon, not “Entschuldigung,” which is usually used to express apology. From the standpoint of denying the “ collective guilt” committed by the German people, the former expression can be said to be logically inevitable. In gist, German logic differs from Japanese logic, and a simple comparison cannot be made.

As for Japan, on various occasions, more straightforward self-reflection and a sense of apology have been expressed. The typical example is the Prime Minister’s statement made on August 15, 1995. In the so-called “Murayama statement,” it was said, "During　a　certian　period　in　the　not　too　distant　past,　Japan,　through　its　colonial　rule　and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. I express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology.”

This is, by far, a direct apology.

Conclusion

In historical controversies, the comparison between Japan and Germany has often been employed. It cannot be denied that Japan has been very cautious in explaining Japan’s past in comparison with Germany, out of consideration for the friendly state, with whom Japan shares fundamental values.

In addition, while in Germany, there is a trend to attribute the responsibility (“the guilt”) to a group called Nazis, in Japan, one must not forget that the intellectual honesty of the Japanese has refrained them from conclusively attributing the responsibility to a group of militarists, such as Class A war criminals, by joining the “dichotomy” between those guilty and those innocent.

I hope the above summary of arguments is helpful in some way.

Japanese : https://i-rich.org/?p=2601

Nonoda Takahiro
Researcher
International Research Institute of Controversial Histories

On December 13, 2024, the Chinese Embassy in Japan posted the following on X: “On December 13, 1937, a brutal Nanjing massacre took place. Today is the national memorial day for the Nanjing massacre victims. Let us bear the history in mind, cherish peace and pray together for the victims to rest in peace.”

On that day in 1937, the battle of Nanjing took place, but there was no “Nanjing Incident,” let alone a great massacre, which has been verified by statements by our Institute’s researcher Ikeda and advisor Ara, disseminated by this Institute.

After I found the text posted on X on December 13, 2024, I discussed it with our Institute’s staff and sent a statement of protest to the Chinese Embassy in the names of the International Research Institute of Controversial Histories and the People’s Campaign for the Truth of Nanjing. We have confirmed that our statement was received by the Chinese Embassy, but we have heard nothing from the Embassy in response.

To find out the intention of this post made by the Embassy, I examined how far the reach of China’s posting on X has been, as means of igniting international historical controversies. As a result, we examined posts on X by Chinese Embassies in several countries of the world, but they did not carry the Nanjing Incident message. We wondered also if China had been posting continuously before 2024 and checked posts made by the Chinese Embassy in Japan in the past. We found out that the post suddenly appeared in 2024.

Keeping in mind what happened in the previous year, we paid much attention to what might take place on December 13, 2025. The Chinese Embassy in Japan posted the same text commemorating the day as “Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day,” as the previous year. What’s more, in 2025, they posted that “the Nanjing court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East judged Tani Hisao as guilty and in 1947 he was executed by firing squad,” which appeared as if it were the truth recognized by the trial. Problems with the International Military Tribunal for the Far East have been argued not only in Japan but also overseas. As to the case of Tani, it is recorded that during the trial, the defendant’s side explained that the “grounds for a guilty judgment are not sufficient” in a publication compiled by Inoue Hisashi, one of the “pro-massacre” scholars, “Collections of Sources of the Nanjing Incident, 2 China-related materials.”

In addition, in 2025, there was a different trend from the previous year. As I had done in 2024, I examined Chinese Embassy’s X posts in several countries and found that Chinese Embassies in France, Germany, the United States and the Chinese Ambassador in Britain posted on X with the catch phrase of “We never forget 300000.” And the Ambassador’s post was excerpted by the Chinese Embassy in Britain. China’s post spread to other countries for the first time in 2025.

Fellow Sawada of this Institute pointed out that the Nanjing Massacre Museum describes Japan as a mirror-image of Chinese people’s brutality. I think the same thing is happening in the propaganda and media sphere. And that is not accidental but is carried out as planned.

It is a well-known fact that China practices censorship on information. When I visited Hong Kong on business in 2014, I saw a commercial for a CNN documentary in which the Chinese authorities detained a reporter. The same commercial was broadcast in Shanghai, but the scene of the reporter being detained instantly went blank off the screen. At that moment I was sure that they censored the scene out.

Censorship works also on the Internet. The system called Great Fire Wall shuts off overseas information and prevents information inconvenient for the Chinese government from entering China. As of 2014, Internet media like YouTube and Facebook were not available in the usual manner in China.

China’s propaganda war on the Internet has changed in 2016 when Xi Jin-ping regime started. In addition to shutting off the conventional information, China came to actively disseminate propaganda favorable to China both officially and unofficially. This policy is applied not only within China but also extends overseas. In the center of this propaganda dissemination strategy is the Cyberspace Administration of China: (CAC). According to Colville, in March 2024, the CAC directed to disseminate positive propaganda for China. It is not a mere coincidence that 2024 was the year when the Chinese Embassy started to spread the “Nanjing Massacre” propaganda.

Equally, it cannot be overlooked that in 2025 as the “ultra-right” in Chinese terms Takaichi administration started, repeated provocative remarks in Japanese were made by the Chinese diplomatic department. The afore-mentioned countries where Chinese Embassies posted “Nanjing Massacre” articles are tended to be influenced by growing nationalist parties in the world. It seems China tries to examine the respective countries’ nationalist speech by disseminating remarks degrading Japan’s “Rightist” administration.

Under such circumstances, when it comes to our country, we are in a particularly disadvantageous position in terms of the fight against the “Nanjing incident” propaganda. One of the biggest causes is the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website that says, “On the part of the Japanese Government, we cannot deny that after the Japanese Army entered in the walled city of Nanjing (in 1937), there were murder of noncombatants and acts of plunder.” In the Diet, a similar government’s view is expressed. As our advisor Ara states, it is necessary to review the government’s view and withdraw it. In the opinion formation on the Internet, one self-claimed history scholar after another acknowledges “massacre” without defining “massacre” and the government’s view does not “deny” it. Then it becomes inevitable that “Nanjing massacre” becomes “fact,” even if it wasn’t.

We must be prepared for the steady intensification of China’s propaganda war, carefully monitoring such a situation. The first step for Japan to fend off China’s strengthened propaganda must be to declare that Japan’s positions are based on historical facts and to actively address the propaganda war. It is not easy to fight in the private sector and clearly there is a limit to it. In the face of China’s propaganda war, it is against its national interest for the Japanese government to show the white flag from the start. It is an insult without cause against not only the present but also the past Japan and Japanese people. It will not serve the world well, either.

Reference:

1. Sawada Kenichi, Root of “Japan-like” and Reconciliation, statement, International Research Institute of Controversial Histories, February 2026
2. Ikeda Haruka, “Japan’s Speech Sphere and the Nanjing Incident,” statement, International Research Institute of Controversial Histories, August 2025
3. Ara Kenichi, The Nanjing Propaganda in the 80 years after the War, statement, International Research Institute of Controversial Histories, October 2025
4. Colville, Alex (2025-04-21), “Bringing AI Down to Earth,” China Media Project, Retrieved 2025-04-23.

Japanese : https://i-rich.org/?p=2591

Sawada Kenichi
Senior Researcher
 International Research Institute of Controversial Histories

Very early at the beginning of 2026, on January 10, a newly found fact was introduced during

an NHK TV program “Intelligent Exploratory Frontier by Tamori and Yamanaka Shinya—gigantic volcanic eruption gave birth to the “Japanese people!?” It was explained that the root of Japanese-ness derives from gigantic volcanic eruptions and people constantly exposed to the crises of volcanic eruption came to be equipped with a sense of awe toward nature and very active in terms of helping each other.

In addition, gene D-M55, typical to the Jomon people, and fear-inducing gene are explained, which make people fit for group-living and enhance people’s ability to discern danger. And it was also explained that cooperativeness is the key to overcoming difficulties. That is, to help each other and to be eager to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. This TV program was very interesting to watch, dealing with various fields of physiology, genetics and earth physics.

Incidentally, regarding the Jomon people, who were the Japanese people’s ancestors, how did they come to the Japanese Archipelago?

The ancestors of the modern humans “Homo sapiens” are said to have originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Then, they moved to every part of the earth. In 2020, the University of Tokyo and others announced that not only Japanese Jomon people but also all the eastern Eurasians came via the southern route. They decisively asserted not “many” but “all” of them.

Homo sapiens, ancestors of the Jomon people are said to have reached as far as Indonesia about 70,000 years ago. Toba volcano erupted about 74,000 years ago. In the southern part of India, stoneware was unearthed from under the volcanic ash stratum.

Also, in Australia, a stone ax with a polished blade dating back to about 65,000 years ago was unearthed. This was a polished stone ax and with this tool in hand, people gained the ability to cut down big trees and make boats of wood.

Aboard their log boats, they arrived at the southwestern tip of Kyushu about 40, 000 years ago. Starting from the present Kalimantan (Borneo Island) aboard boats, stopping at the Okinawa islands, they arrived at the Honshu island. It was not at all easy to complete the nearly three thousand kilometers long voyage, riding against Kuroshio Current, one of the world’s strongest currents.

When a log boat got upset by transverse waves, throwing a member of the fellow crew into the sea, they helped each other up aboard the boat again. To desert those thrown into the sea meant to lose rowers of the boat, leading to death of oneself. That was why a strong comradeship was naturally born. To save others’ lives was tantamount to saving one’s own life. With this strong bond, only one thousand people finally arrived at the Japanese Archipelago, which is revealed by nuclear DNA analysis. The first group of the Japanese people were mere one thousand. Out of this group of one thousand people were formed the Jomon people.

It was a geopolitically lucky event that the Jomon people came to live in the Japanese Archipelago. Japanese Archipelago is surrounded by the seas and there was no danger of being the victims of wars waged by other peoples and no attempt was made to wage a war against other peoples and kill enemies.

From the ruins of the Jomon people, no weapons to kill others have been unearthed. After rice-growing was introduced during the Yayoi people’s period, probably there were wars over harvested rice and other crops and among the Haniwa figurines, some were made to resemble warriors. However, in Japan, which had never experienced a war waged by other peoples, there were a few wars or a few war casualties.

Certainly, in the short term, for one hundred years from the latter half of the fifteenth century and in the long term, for one hundred and fifty years, there was Sengoku, or warring-states period when one war after another took place. Even during this period, war was fought exclusively among warriors and in principle, there were no civilian deaths involved in the war. Clearly, Japan experienced few wars.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Japanese people fiercely fought but it was for the cause or mission of self-defense or liberation of Asia that Japanese fought so violently, willing to sacrifice their own lives.

The Japanese people with such national trait cannot have massacred as many as 300,000 guiltless civilians at the time of siege of Nanjing in 1937. The supreme leader at the time of the establishment of the present People’s Republic of China Mao Zedong himself said, in Yan’an, half a year after the siege of Nanjing, “The Japanese Army had many sieges but few annihilations.” This means that there was no massacre, doesn’t it?

Nonetheless, at present, the Chinese government built the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in the city of Nanjing, citing the Japanese Army killed 300,000 people.

After all, is it that this memorial hall reflects the self-image of the Chinese culture that prefers wars and nonchalantly commits one massacre after another. In that, this memorial hall can be said to be the symbol of the self-image of the horrible China or a symbol of China’s shame.

It was a profound discovery that the NHK’s program this time reveals that Japanese people’s cooperative and mutually assisting trait was formed through the rice cultivating culture that requires unified cooperation of many people and that at the same time genetically Japanese people have this tendency.

Japan should disseminate to the world its proud history with more confidence. Getting rid of the misunderstanding that the Japanese people are belligerent, Japan should conciliate countries of the world.