In 1972, China and Japan achieved normalization of diplomatic relations. At that time, Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka gave China more than 1,000 big mountain cherry trees.
The purpose of Kakuei Tanaka sending cherry blossoms is not difficult to guess. It is hoped that the relationship between China and Japan can grow continuously and healthily like those cherry blossom trees.
China naturally also knows Kakuei Tanaka's idea, so it distributed this batch of cherry blossom trees to various parts of China to plant, and also hopes that the friendly relations between China and Japan can "flower everywhere".
Nanjing, which was the most seriously injured in the Japanese war of aggression against China, also received more than 100 of the batch of cherry blossom trees given by Kakuei Tanaka.
With the continuous improvement of Sino-Japanese relations, on December 21, 1978, Nanjing, China and Nagoya, Japan became friendly cities, and in the following 30 years, many friendly economic and cultural exchange activities were carried out.
Until February 20, 2012, the situation changed in anger.
On this day, Kawamura Takayuki, mayor of Nagoya City, Japan, actually openly declared in front of the Nanjing city leaders who visited Nagoya City: "The Nanjing Massacre basically does not exist"!
Who is Kawamura Takayuki?
Where did he get the confidence that he spoke such provocative words without historical common sense in front of the visiting Nanjing leaders?
"Ghost Second Generation" Takayuki Kawamura
The reason why Takayuki Kawamura dared to jump out and openly deny the Nanjing Massacre was inseparable from his family background. Because Takayuki Kawamura's father, Old Man Kawamura, was once a member of the Japanese invaders.
Kawamura Angun was a corporal in the 101st Brigade of the 101st Japanese Infantry Division during Japan's invasion of China, and belonged to the authentic "Japanese devil"! From this perspective, Takanoko Kawamura is the "second generation of ghosts" whose bloodline may be relatively pure.
Kawamura Takayuki's doubts about the Nanjing Massacre are indeed closely related to the experience of the "old devil" Kawamura's old man.
During the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, Kawamura's old man followed the Japanese army to move around Nanjing, but because his troops were not part of the front-line combat force, he did not participate in the Nanjing Massacre.
And the reason why Takayuki Kawamura believes that "the Nanjing Massacre basically does not exist" is simply because the "old devil" Kawamura's old man not only returned to Japan alive after surrendering, but he had not been beaten by the Chinese when Japan surrendered!
Takayuki Kawamura believes that if the Nanjing Massacre really happened, then his father Kawamura's old man was also near Nanjing when he surrendered and was captured. Then people near Nanjing should retaliate against Japanese soldiers like his father Kawamura's old man out of hatred for the Japanese army - not to mention beating to death, at least they should also beat them hard like they were treated as dogs.
However, the actual situation is that after surrendering, the remnants of Japanese invaders such as Kawamura, were not only not retaliated by Nanjing citizens, but instead received a certain degree of "preferred treatment" after putting down their weapons.
So Takayuki Kawamura believes that his father was able to return to Japan intact, which proves from the side that Nanjing citizens have no deep hatred for the Japanese invasion of China, and the Nanjing Massacre naturally "basically no existence".
Takayuki Kawamura's remarks were a live interpretation of what it means to "repay kindness and revenge" and what it means to "shamelessness"!
After Japan's defeat and surrender in 1945, among all the countries invaded by Japan, China's treatment of the surrendered Japanese army can be said to be the most humane. They were neither thrown into the snow and dig potatoes nor circled them as random animals.
This does not mean that the Japanese invaders did not do anything worse than animals in China, but we still adhere to the attitude of "repaying grievances with kindness", always abide by international conventions, and regard their surrendered soldiers as human beings!
But who would have thought that our magnanimity would one day become an excuse for the descendants of the invaders to bite us back and deny basic historical facts?
Takayuki Kawamura's ignorant and shameless remarks immediately sparked strong protests from the delegation of Nanjing to visit Nagoya City, Japan. They immediately interrupted their visit to Nagoya City and seriously pointed out that Takayuki Kawamura's remarks were destroying Sino-Japanese friendly relations.
Zhu Chengshan, then director of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, immediately posted a message to refute Takayuki Kawamura's ignorant and shameless remarks, and reminded Takayuki Kawamura that his father, Kawamura's old man, was able to return to Japan intact, which was the Chinese people's lenient attitude, and he should be more grateful for this, rather than biting back.
The delegation from Nanjing who visited Nagoya City quickly returned to China after expressing protests and said that the friendly relations between Nanjing and Nagoya City were interrupted.
However, even in the face of such harsh and reasonable criticism, even diplomatic pressure, Takayuki Kawamura, as mayor of Nagoya, still chose to do his own thing and refused to apologize to China.
Where did Takayuki Kawamura get such shamelessness and ignorance? Could it be that he is the so-called "tough guy" who never apologizes?
The revived Japanese far-right forces
If you think the reason why Takayuki Kawamura did not apologize to China because he wanted to be a "tough guy", then he was very wrong.
After graduating from Takanomi Kawamura, he first worked as a low-level salesperson in his father Kawamura Old Man's Company. He had to nod and bow when he saw someone. If he made a slight mistake, he had to apologize to others like a kowtow bug.
In August 2021, Takayuki Kawamura took off his mask and bite the gold medal of softball player Kitoto Fuji. Japanese netizens chased him and scolded him: "Abnormal!" "Disgusting!" "Sexual harassment!"...
After Takayuki Kawamura was scolded for being so bloody, he had to publicly apologize to Kito Fuji, admitting that he had a bad brain and was too cheap!
It turns out that Takayuki Kawamura is actually very good at apology. He nodded and bowed quickly. But why is Takayuki Kawamura, who is good at apologizing, not willing to apologize for his ignorant and shameless remarks in the Nanjing Massacre?
This is actually just from the fact that Takayuki Kawamura is still the mayor of Nagoya City, Japan, you can see some clues. After Takayuki Kawamura made ignorant and shameless remarks, not only Nanjing City expressed its protests, but our country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also criticized Takayuki Kawamura, pointing out that his remarks were distorting history and undermining Sino-Japanese friendly relations.
But what does the Japanese side think about this?
After Takayuki Kawamura's ignorant and shameless remarks caused a sensation, the Japanese diplomatic and Japanese government departments responded one after another; they believed that Takayuki Kawamura's remarks only represent himself and cannot represent the Japanese official. There are many "controversies" about the Nanjing Massacre, so they do not comment on Takayuki Kawamura.
This attitude of the Japanese government is undoubtedly a shameless protection of Takayuki Kawamura! Japanese officials have this attitude, so what are the people's attitudes towards the ignorant and shameless remarks of Takayuki Kawamura?
In fact, this problem is really redundant.
Because the mayor of Nagoya City, Japan was chosen by them by themselves, Takayuki Kawamura is still sitting in the mayor's position. It is obvious that the Japanese people's attitude towards this matter is not to be asked.
In fact, shortly after Takayuki Kawamura made those inappropriate remarks, someone conducted an investigation in Nagoya City. The survey results show that most people think that Takayuki Kawamura's statement is not a problem, while a small number of people who think that Takayuki Kawamura's approach is problematic, just think that Takayuki Kawamura should not make such remarks as mayor.
Most citizens of Nagoya City, Japan are not ashamed of Takayuki Kawamura's remarks, nor do they think Takayuki Kawamura's remarks are too much.
On the contrary, why Takayuki Kawamura was so arrogant is not because the kind Chinese made his father return to Japan intact, which ruined his "good thing". He is trying to cater to the far-right elements in Japan and build momentum for his campaign and re-election.
In fact, in Japan, the far-right elements' actions to distort and distort the war of aggression against China have already begun. In the name of studying history, they compiled evil theories such as "A summary of the Greater East Asian War" and "Re-examination of the Nanjing Massacre", openly defended the numerous crimes committed by Japan during World War II and praised Emperor Fascism.
There are many people in Japan who are influenced by the distortions of these far-right elements and have no intention of remorse about the Nanjing Massacre and even the war of aggression against China. Takayuki Kawamura denies the Nanjing Massacre in order to please the people in Japan who are poisoned by the ideas of far-right elements.
Why can Japanese far-right elements rise again in Japan? Who gave them such rampant courage?
Cultural War without Gun Smoke
As we all know, Japan was occupied by the United States for seven years after World War II, and until now Japan is still an important military presence for the United States in Asia.
The rise of the far-right forces in Japan is naturally closely related to the United States.
After Japan's defeat and surrender in 1945, MacArthur entered Japan as the highest commander of the United Nations Army and commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Army, and in fact became Japan's "Supreme Emperor".
After MacArthur occupied Japan, he initially vigorously purged the right-wing elements in Japan, disbanded a large number of anti-American right-wing organizations, and cleared out anti-American right-wing officials.
But it should be noted that MacArthur's purge of Japanese right-wing elements was originally focused on rectifying anti-American elements in Japan, so the rectification was extremely incomplete.
And after the end of World War II, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union broke out.
The United States intends to build Japan into a frontier position in the battle for hegemony with the Soviet Union. In order to strengthen its control over Japan, the United States re-appointed a large number of Japanese right-wing elements as officials, causing the right-wing forces in Japan to quickly rise up.
Among the Japanese right-wing elements who have been activated, the most famous one is Kishi Nobusuke, the grandfather of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated this year!
Nobusuke Kishi was called the "Five Manchurians" with Tojo Hideki and others in his early years. He was not only a fanatical believer in the theory of "Manchuria and Mongolia are the lifeline of Japan", but also crazily exploited Chinese people in Northeast China during Japan's invasion of China, and even forced people in Northeast China to grow opium for their smuggling and profit, meeting his evil goal of launching a war of aggression for Japan to plunder resources.
After Japan's defeat, Nobusuke Kishi was originally imprisoned as a Class A war criminal, but in 1948, he gained favor from Americans because of his anti-communist and pro-American stance and released him out of prison.
With the political stance that is appreciated by Americans, Kishi Nobusuke not only escaped the sanctions he deserved, but also became the Prime Minister of Japan in 1957!
A right-wing element at the level of Class A war criminals can be like this. It is conceivable how rampant the right-wing element in the civil and academic circles is rampant under the condolence of the United States!
In fact, Japanese right-wing elements attempted to deny the Nanjing Massacre. As early as 1972, Japanese right-wing scholar Akira Suzuki began to publicly publish a series of distortions such as "the fiction of the Nanjing Massacre" in the Japanese magazine "Juns", and compiled these distortions into distortions in 1973.
In this crooked book, Suzuki Aki denied the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese invaders in Nanjing in 1937 through the so-called "witnesses" of some Japanese invaders and defeated soldiers.
In 1984, Japanese scholar Masaaki Tanaka made a fool of himself and distorted the facts and wrote a distorted book "Fiction of the Nanjing Incident", trying to convey to the world that the Nanjing Massacre was "fictional" in the Tokyo Trial to prove the cruelty of the Japanese army.
In Japan, there are many other wrong books and theories like this, so I won't list them here to avoid tainting everyone's eyes and ears.
In short, after the country's economy and politics developed, Japanese politicians did not want to recognize the black history of burning, killing, looting and looting during World War II.
That is why they support unscrupulous scholars in China to tamper with history and thus change the identity of Japan's defeated country in World War II!
All of this is actually just a despicable trick of Japanese politicians to fool people in the name of academics out of dirty political considerations.
Conclusion
Zhu Chengshan, director of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, refuted the ignorant and shameless remarks of Takayuki Kawamura, immediately refuted the ignorant and shameless remarks of Takayuki Kawamura.
But Takayuki Kawamura refused to apologize in the end, and the friendly urban relations between Nanjing and Nagoya have not been restored to this day.
Fortunately, Japan is not all right-wingers today. Takayuki Kawamura's ignorance and shamelessness not only aroused the indignation of the Chinese people, but also opposed by knowledgeable people in Japan.
Shortly after the publication of Takayuki Kawamura's distortion, Ms. Matsugang Huan, a Japanese female scholar who had visited Japanese soldiers who participated in the Nanjing Massacre and wrote "The Battle of Nanjing. Finding Closed Memories" and "The Battle of Nanjing. The Soul of the Schised Victims", sent a letter of protest to Takayuki Kawamura, expressing strong protests against Takayuki Kawamura's distortion of history.
In addition to Ms. Matsugang Huan, there are more than a dozen groups and individuals in Japan who expressed strong protests against Takayuki Kawamura.
But now Takayuki Kawamura is still the mayor of Nagoya City, and his view on denying the Nanjing Massacre has not changed.
In this seemingly peaceful international environment, the cultural war that cannot be seen in the smoke of gunpowder is actually still going on...
