Public Statements By Chinese Government and Leaders During The War
Massacre affirmationists point to reports from the United Press and Reuters that indicate that, as early as December 16, 1937, three days after Nanking fell, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced, in Hankow, "Chinese army casualties on all fronts exceed 300,000. The loss of civilian life and property is beyond computation."
Massacre denialists argue however that the Kuomintang Ministry of Information, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong never mentioned the Nanking massacre in the years between the fall of Nanking and the Japanese surrender.
For example, Kazuo Sato asserts that Chiang Kai-shek broadcast his radio addresses hundreds of times to the Chinese people between the fall of Nanking and the end of World War II, but he had never mentioned about the "Nanking Massacre" even once. Satoru Mizushima asserted that "Chiang Kai-shek held 300 press conferences in the 11 months following the fall of Nanjing. He told the international media, 'Japan did this, and Japan did that.' But there was absolutely no mention of Nanjing. Not a single word."
In 1938, several months after the "massacre," nationalist Chiang Kai-Shek appealed to the West for support in his struggle against the Japanese occupation. In his appeals, he mentioned the "cold blooded" Japanese aerial bombardment of Canton, but did not mention a "Nanking massacre." Neither a publication by General He Yingquin, one of the top-ranking Nationalist officers and former minister of defense, Modern Chinese History: The Conflict with Japan, which contains military reports covering the period between 1937 and 1945 nor China Year Book 1938, published by the "North China Daily News & Herald (Shanghai)," which chronicles official Chinese speeches and events, mention the occurrence of a massacre in Nanking.
Higashinakano points out that the July 9, 1938 issue of China Forum, which was published by the Ministry of Information seven months after the fall of Nanking, carried a feature entitled "One Year of Sino-Japanese War: Review Questions for Study Groups." One of the questions was "What was the attitude of China after the fall of Nanking? The answer (intended to serve as a model) was "General Chiang Kai-shek said on December 16, 1937: 'No matter how the present situation may change, we must not surrender but march onward.'" No mention was made of a massacre.
Higashinakano further argues that Mao Zedong, who criticized Japanese military strategy in one of his famous lectures, stated that Japanese troops committed a strategical error by not annihilating enemy soldiers in Nanking but did not mention a massacre.
Read more about this topic: Nanking Massacre Denial
Famous quotes containing the words public, statements, chinese, government, leaders and/or war:
“Alone in the public clearing
This private thing was owned by all the town,
Though never claimed by us within my hearing.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements of ultimate fact but as art-forms.”
—J.B.S. (John Burdon Sanderson)
“One alone in a Chinese square
confronted tanks, while others fled.
He stood for freedom for us all,
but few care now if he’s jailed or dead.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.... [The organized moneyed people] are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred.... I should like to have it said of my second administration that these forces met their master.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.”
—Abba Eban (b. 1915)
“Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)