Nanking Safety Zone - Legacy

Legacy

Before the normalization of relations between China and the West, the Westerners who remained behind in Nanking to run the Nanking Safety Zone were vigorously criticized by the Chinese government. For example, a group of researchers at Nanking University in the 1960s condemned the members of the Western community in Nanking for turning a blind eye to the Japanese atrocities in the city and misused the primary sources to suggest that the Westerners had cooperated in the Japanese slaughter of Chinese. As Chinese concerns about "American imperialism" diminished, and as Japan became the target of official vitriol (partly at least because of the highly politicized and contentious issue of Japanese textbooks), views in China dramatically changed. Westerners were now depicted as active resistors rather than active collaborators.

However, certain right-wing and nationalist Japanese authors and politicians claim that along with the Nanking Massacre, the Safety Zone never existed. The museum of the Yasukuni shrine omits any mention of the Nanking massacre and proclaims that "The Japanese established a safety zone for Chinese civilians and made a special effort to protect historical and cultural sites. Inside the city, residents were once again able to live their lives in peace."