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Denial of the Nanking Massacre
• Denial is often described as “Historical Revisionism” and deniers are often referred to as “Historical
Revisionists”
—Attempt to legitimate denial with reference to academia
—Historians engaged in legitimate historical revisionism are simply called historians
Motivations include the following:
—Political – the prestige of a nation
—Psychological – avoidance of guilt or culpability
—Legal – avoidance of prosecution
—Ideological – denial based on a belief
• Japanese Government offi cially denies the Nanking Massacre and the existence of Japanese Military
Sexual Slavery during WWII
• Many other countries offi cially deny historical events, often for nationalist or political reasons: for
example, Turkey offi cially denies the Armenian Genocide, and Iran offi cially denies the Holocaust
• Forms of denial of the Nanking Massacre:
—Complete denial, claiming that civilian deaths are a part of war
—Disputes over numbers killed, arguing that the number of people killed does not
amount to a massacre
—Distortion and Re-Writing of history; instead of writing “Japan invaded China,”
writing “Japan entered China.”
—Justifying Japan’s military imperialism as protecting Asia from racist and
imperialist Western practice
—Minimizing what occurred: Calling the Nanking Massacre the “Nanking
Incident”
Eurocentric trends in history and WWII as a global war
• The events of WWII in Europe are well-known and commonly taught in history classes – why are the
events of WWII in Asia less well know and taught less frequently?
—The Rape of Nanking was front page news in 1937, Western journalists published
reports about the massacre. However, until Iris Chang published the Rape of
Nanking in 1997, few people cared to remember WWII atrocities in Asia.
—Importance of examining WWII as a global confl ict
—WWII start date is commonly assigned to 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, but
fi ghting in Asia started as early as 1931.
• Much of Asia and Africa was divided into colonies or spheres of infl uence by Western Powers. When
the ruling power went to war, the colonies had to assist.
• Global Alliances
—Axis Alliance: Germany, Italy and Japan
—Allies: The British Empire and Commonwealth countries, France and French
colonies, Canada, Poland, Australia, etc. Eventually included: Belgium,
Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Luxemburg, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., among
others
• The U.S.A. was offi cially neutral in WWII, until Japan raided Pearl Harbor
— Hitler declared war on the U.S.A. and the U.S.A. offi cially entered the war in
Europe on December 11, 1941.
— The Allies decided on the “Europe First” strategy – to win the war in Europe
before focusing on war efforts in Asia.
— It was the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor that ultimately brought the U.S.A. into
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