Denial

[robinturner]

I've just seen an interview with the person behind the history textbook that inspired the current anti-Japanese riots in China. The book makes no mention of the infamous "Rape of Nanking" and states only that the Chinese were defeated and the residents of Nanking were able to return to their everyday lives (the ones that survived, that is). What is amazing is that he isn't in a simple state of denial, like those who deny that the Holocaust happened: he accepts that a massacre happened, but claims that it was "irrelevant". And they wonder why the Chinese are a little irate at the moment.

Comments

[vret.livejournal.com]

His attitude makes sense to me, from what I understand of Japanese culture.

I don't think the average conventional Japanese would even comment on a US textbook that ignored the firebombing of Tokyo as irrelevant. One that ignored the atom bombs might be offensive, but only because it would imply that they had lost face by surrendering.