Based on an essay by Professor Emeritus Keiichiro Kobori, this article examines how the Nanjing Incident was fabricated as propaganda and later weaponized by the Chinese Communist Party, while criticizing Japan’s pro-China foreign-ministry faction for capitulation and calling for firm diplomatic resolve.
“Look Behind the Threats Toward Japan”
From an Essay by Professor Emeritus Keiichiro Kobori, Published in Sankei Shimbun / Seiron on October 3

Mr. Ara Exposes the Falsehood of the Nanjing Incident

Two works have been selected this year for Excellence Awards in the 8th Japan Restoration Grand Prize organized by the APA Japan Restoration Foundation, and among them is The Definitive Edition: The Nanjing Incident Never Happened — Awaken, Ministry of Foreign Affairs! by Ken’ichi Ara.

The so-called Nanjing Massacre was a product of propaganda fabricated by the government of the Republic of China and, later, by the government of the People’s Republic of China that succeeded it. As a historical fact, no such incident ever occurred.
This is something that any Japanese person of sound judgment has long understood.

That the event itself was fictitious was conclusively demonstrated through extensive joint research conducted after the establishment of the “Japan ‘Nanjing’ Studies Association,” including the distinguished work of Shudo Higashinakano. A great many scholars produced major achievements from a wide variety of perspectives, and taken as a whole, the historical and empirical research has already been completed.
Since this historical verification has already been settled, Mr. Ara’s present work does not present any newly discovered materials, nor does it offer any new interpretive developments.

The reason this book was nonetheless judged worthy of an award is clearly indicated by its subtitle, “Awaken, Ministry of Foreign Affairs!”

The main argument of the book begins under the chapter titled “How the Nanjing Incident Was Fabricated,” introducing how victim imagery was created through forged photographs produced by American and Chinese employees of U.S.-affiliated news agencies that deliberately fabricated the Nanjing Incident.

These are the symbolic images of wartime devastation that many of us remember having seen through various media.
Scenes that we once accepted as “this is what war is like, unavoidable as it may be,” were, in fact, staged productions designed to exaggerate and propagate the alleged brutality of the Japanese military. One can only feel disillusioned.

The event, which is most fittingly defined as a fabrication, has behaved in a truly strange manner: contrary to how memories normally fade with time, it has instead grown ever more entrenched in people’s minds as historical “fact.”
Analyzing this absurdity is one of the greatest significances of Mr. Ara’s new book.

Chapter Four, titled “The Year Japan Recognized the Nanjing Incident: 1982,” points out that this was the turning point in which China, by invoking the Nanjing Incident, launched what is now called the “history war” against Japan.
It further makes clear—and condemns—that it was the China School faction within Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that capitulated to this challenge, revealed to the opponent the precise vulnerable points of Japan’s position, and effectively instructed that if those points were struck, Japan would always yield to China.

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The Maneuvers of the Pro-China Faction within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

At the very mention of this faction, more than one bitter memory immediately resurfaces for the author as well.

Following the 1982 textbook revision misreporting incident, the National Council to Protect Japan sought to compile a proper history textbook on its own. Their textbook, New Japanese History, passed the government screening in 1986. Yet at that time, members of the China School within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs applied pressure by threatening to have it failed on the grounds that it lacked a “reflective” description of the Nanjing Incident.

Again, in 1992, when the issue arose regarding Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress (now the Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita) visiting China, opponents placed two full-page advertisements in the Sankei Shimbun opposing the visit. Nevertheless, the visit was ultimately carried out in compliance with demands arising from the unilateral political needs of the Beijing Communist government—once again due to the maneuvering of the pro-China faction within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As a result of the Emperor of Japan’s visit to China, the Chinese Communist government succeeded in creating an international atmosphere of leniency regarding its brutal suppression of the pro-democracy student demonstrations during the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, in which it ruthlessly opened fire on demonstrators.
In this way, the Chinese government gradually learned the tactics by which it could prevail over Japan in the so-called “history war.”

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China’s Intimidation Should Be Ignored and Silenced

According to Mr. Ara, it was in 2014, the year following Xi Jinping’s assumption of the presidency, that he began actively using the Nanjing Incident as a diplomatic weapon against Japan.

Even before that, there had been various disputes and lawsuits concerning the veracity of the incident itself and the interpretation of its details, yet it had not become a major issue commanding strong domestic attention.
At that stage, the understanding that the incident was merely a product of propaganda by Chiang Kai-shek’s regime and lacked any real substance had already become quite widespread within Japan. Only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lacked the courage to declare that this was in fact the prevailing view of the Japanese people.

Now, however, President Xi, driven by his own political necessity, widely propagates the Nanjing Massacre narrative throughout the international community—while Japan offers no appropriate rebuttal.

From this present situation alone, Mr. Ara’s selection for the award is clearly effective.
It may be reasonably assumed that a considerable number of Chinese, both inside and outside China, are capable of reading Japanese.

If such readers are attracted by the publicity surrounding this award and open this book, they will be able to clearly recognize the folly and ugliness of President Xi’s attempt to resurrect the specter of the Nanjing Incident after seventy-seven years in order to exploit it as a tool to satisfy his own political ambitions.

At this very moment, President Xi is deliberately making an issue of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s lawful expression regarding a “survival-threatening situation,” attempting to count this as another victory in his historical offensive against Japan.
This folly is identical to his obsession with the fictitious Nanjing Incident.

The pro-China faction within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must, this time at last, awaken and consign his intimidation to silence and disregard.

(Keiichiro Kobori)