Chinese historians have said that "unassailable" historical documents have proved more than 300,000 people were slaughtered in the infamous Nanjing Massacre by invading Japanese troops 70 years ago.
"There is no doubt on the total number of victims, which has been confirmed by unassailable evidence in legal documents, and the Japanese right wing's attempt to deny it is unacceptable," said Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial.
Japanese troops occupied Nanjing on Dec. 13, 1937, and began six weeks of destruction, pillage, rape and slaughter. Historical records show that more than 300,000 Chinese, including unarmed soldiers and innocent civilians, were murdered, according to a post-war trial judgment.
The Far East International Military Court was set up 58 years ago, consisting of judges from 11 countries, including China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the former Soviet Union.
The court began the trials of 28 Japanese criminals in May 1946. The court sentenced seven chief Japanese war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, the leader of the massacre, to death after two years' judgment.
Local courts were also established for judging lower-grade Japanese criminals in 10 major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, in accordance with the post-war judgment by the Far East Court.
Sun Zhaiwei, vice chairman of the Research Institute of the Nanjing Massacre, has presented a copious amount of historical evidence proving the number of victims in the Nanjing Massacre.
"The Japanese right wing's stance -- that the victim number is far less than 300,000 because there were only 200,000 residents and 50,000 army people in Nanjing -- is totally nonsense," said Sun, also a researcher of the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences.
"The true figure is that the population of Nanjing was 600,000 to 700,000, and an additional 150,000 soldiers and officers also posted there," Sun said.
Documents from international humanitarian and charity organizations, which witnessed the tragedy, and records seized from Japanese troops show that Japanese invading troops killed more than 190,000 civilians and soldiers in 28 massive slaughter cases. A further 150,000 people were killed in 858 scatter cases.
"The Nanjing Massacre was a wartime atrocity committed by Japanese troops on the Chinese people and it is a widely-acknowledged barbarity that cannot be denied," Sun said.
"Any attempt to distort historical fact and whitewash war crimes committed by the Japanese invaders is intolerable," the expert added.
(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2007)
