An indelible disgrace

The Chinese city of Nanjing has cut official ties with its sister city of Nagoya, Japan, after Nagoya’s mayor denied that Japanese troops raped and killed 300,000 Chinese during WWII.

While hosting a high-level official from Nanjing on Monday, the mayor of Nagoya said he believes only “conventional acts of combat” had taken place. This statement has outraged Chinese around the world and has led to an official complaint by the Chinese government.

Even today, in an ever-changing China, the memory of the massacre in Nanjing still looms like a spectre over the city’s psyche.

The notorious Rape of Nanking, as it is often referred to, is well documented yet continues to be downplayed or denied by many in Japan.

History holds many atrocities we wish could be rubbed away. But it is only through the sharp point of a historian’s pen – and not through blunt denials – can we make amends.