Originally posted on May 6, 2019.
Based on an essay by Masayuki Takayama, this passage examines the removal of photographs from the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, Asahi Shimbun’s role in historical fabrication, Hu Jintao’s calculated decision, and the symbolic decline of Asahi.
It is a sharp reflection on the relationship between photographs, historical perception, and political manipulation.

2019-05-06
That at the same time signified the decline of Asahi.
Did he judge that if Asahi’s photograph of historical fabrication remained here, the lie of the Nanjing Massacre would also become precarious.
There certainly are sharp-minded Chinese.

This is from Masayuki Takayama’s essay, posted on 2015-09-29, titled “The Famous Staged Photograph Taken by Wang Xiaoting, a Photographer for the American Magazine Life, Who Placed a Baby in the Burned-Out Ruins of Shanghai.”
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.
In December 2007, ahead of the reopening of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, which had been expanded tenfold, Hu Jintao ordered Director Zhu Chengshan, “Remove those three photographs.”
One of the three was a photograph published in Asahi Graph showing rural women and children and Japanese soldiers protecting them from attacks by bandits.
At the memorial hall, it had been captioned as “Japanese soldiers captured Chinese women, took them away, raped them, and killed them.”
The remaining ones included the famous staged photograph taken by Wang Xiaoting, a photographer for the American magazine Life, who placed a baby in the burned-out ruins of Shanghai.
It is perfectly clear that none of them had anything to do with Nanjing.
At the time those three photographs were removed, in Japan the Asahi Shimbun was at the height of its power after bringing down the first Abe administration.
Yet Hu Jintao deliberately had the photograph connected to Asahi Shimbun removed.
He had foreseen Abe’s political restoration.
That at the same time signified the decline of Asahi.
Did he judge that if Asahi’s photograph of historical fabrication remained here, the lie of the Nanjing Massacre would also become precarious.
There certainly are sharp-minded Chinese.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(Issue dated October 2, 2014)