APA Group, one of japan’s biggest estate and hotel chains, has angered China with a denial of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, according to the Guardian.
A book by Japan hotel causes the anger
Earlier this week, a video shot by a student couple from New York University was posted on Chinese microblog Sina Weibo. In one of the APA hotels, they found a book titled "The Real History of Japan: Theoretical Modern History II," which claims that “the logical things are being taught as history” with an example of the massacre of 3000,000 people in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing.
Toshio Motoya, founder of APA Group and writer of the book, pointed out that Chinese government distorted the historical facts of the Massacre in Nanjing when he wrote, "The population of Nanjing was almost 200,000 at that time". The video has been shared more than 720,000 times on Chinese social media.
How Chinese react over APA hotel’s denial?
The Global Times, one of China’s official media outlets, conducted an online poll on whether to support China imposing a sanction on APA Group on behalf of the country or not. According to the latest result, more than 42,000 Chinese netizens agree with the idea of sanction, while only 20 percent of people hold an opposing view.
An online civil group, Jiuvers, whose members are originally from Mainland China, decided to bombard APA hotel’s Facebook and Twitter account with comments on 20th January.
“But this activity is not directed against Japanese people as well as the friendship between the two nations,” said an announcement on Jiuvers’ sina weibo.
Although Chinese netizens expressed their anger against APA hotel’s denial of historical facts, there are other rational attitudes towards this event.
A comment, which was posted by one Chinese social media user, has attracted the most “likes” below the video mentioned before on Sina Weibo.
“We should boycott the behavior of blatantly distorting facts, but we also show kindness and politeness to those Japanese enterprises and people who respect the basic historical facts.” wrote by this user.
Jingbo Xu, chief of the Japanese Asia News Agency, recently took part in a Japanese program debating over the APA hotel event.
“Many Chinese social media users left comments below my weibo page, saying that it is necessary to apart political issues from tourism, ” said Xu.
What is the latest proceeding?
Chinese Foreign Ministry and China’s Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall strongly condemned APA hotel’s attitude towards the historical 1937 Nanjing massacre after the event was widely spread on Chinese social media.
According to the source from China’s official Xinhua news agency, Asia's 8th Asian Winter Games has requested APA Group to withdraw the controversial book from its guest rooms. The hotel, however, told NHK that they “have yet to receive any formal request from the organizing committee”.
From the other side, some Chinese people attempt to boycott APA hotel with actions.
A Chinese hotel in the Eastern city of Hangzhou announced that their guest rooms would be distributed with "The Diaries of John Rabe," a book written by a German Businessman who lived in Nanjing and witnessed how the massacre of Chinese civilians was launched by Japanese troops.
Xiaomin Xie, CEO of this Chinese hotel, told The Paper.com that they intended to let foreign guests learn about the true history of Nanjing massacre. “Every day we hotels welcome guests from different culture background and definitely won't distribute any biased books or outlets in guest rooms. APA hotel is breaking the general rules.” said Xie.
