Japan ‘irresponsible’ over massacre
Print Edition
JAPAN is acting irresponsibly in withholding its 2016 funding for UNESCO in a row over how the Nanjing Massacre is remembered, China said yesterday.
The United Nations heritage body decided last year to include documents about the massacre in its “Memory of the World” program.
However, Japan raised questions about the authenticity of the documents submitted by Chinese organizations, prompting an angry response from China.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the massacre was a heinous crime committed by the Japanese during World War II and a historical fact recognized by the international community. UNESCO was right to include the documents.
“This will give full play to the positive role of the documents in helping remember history, cherish peace and safeguard human dignity,” Hua said.
The files document the atrocities that were committed in China by the Japanese, who killed 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers between December 1937 and January 1938 in Nanjing, which was then China’s capital.
“What Japan has said and done once again lays bare their wrong attitude of not acknowledging history,” Hua said. “Not paying fees to UNESCO to exert pressure is irresponsible. They will not achieve their aims.”
Japan is holding back more than US$40 million it owes to UNESCO. The UN body established its “Memory of the World” program in 1992 to protect important historical documents and materials.
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