A museum in Japan is facing accusations of “rewriting history” for replacing the Nanking massacre with the word “incident”, drawing criticism and reviving anger over the country’s wartime aggression.
The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, which previously resisted revisionist attempts, appeared to have capitulated to a civic group’s pressure campaign, following Thursday’s release of proposed exhibit changes by its operations council.
Other amendments announced by the museum, opened in 1996, include describing Imperial Japan’s assault on China as an “invasion” and that the army used “aggression”, Nagasaki Cultural Broadcasting reported on Friday.
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However, the most controversial change was the replacement of massacre with “incident”, a decision one analyst said left “Japan with egg on its face”.
The massacre took place in the city now known as Nanjing and occurred over a period of six weeks starting on December 13, 1937, the day the Japanese captured the city.
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The death toll has not been conclusively established. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo estimated in 1946 that over 200,000 Chinese people were killed.