
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994                    TAG: 9406090009 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A14    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940609                                 LENGTH:

THE RAPE OF NANKING WAS NO `HOAX'

{LEAD} It took me quite a long time to find the news in your paper about the recent incident in which the new Japanese Justice Minister Shigeto Nagano blatantly denied the role of Japan as an aggressor during World War II (news, May 5 and May 7). He even called the notorious massacre and rape by Japanese soldiers in Nanking, China, in 1937, when about 300,000 Chinese, most civilians, were killed ``hoaxes.''

Mr. Nagano later retracted his comment. However, his outrageous and irresponsible remarks stirred up a wave of angry protest from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Korea, which caused him to step down in disgrace.

{REST} Japanese war crimes during the Nanking massacre and rape are well-documented. Many of the survivors are still alive. The witnesses included even quite a few Americans who were in China then. I recently watched a documentary film about the massacre by a late American who witnessed the immediate aftermath and took numerous films and photos of the scene and victims. Even one formal Japanese officer figured the death toll to be at least 150,000.

How can anyone deny this crime? Imagine that one of the major German Cabinet members had announced that Auschwitz never existed! It would have been on the front page all over, and every one of us would loudly protest. It is chilling that this is happening now when the U.S. government has submitted a proposal to the U.N. General Assembly to amend the U.N. Charter to admit Japan and Germany as two new permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Do we want to hire an unrepentant murderer as our policeman?

JIASHI HOU

Virginia Beach, May 25, 1994

by CNB