DATE=6/8/99 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT NUMBER=5-43605 TITLE=JAPAN/BOOK CONTROVERSY BYLINE=MIKE O'SULLIVAN DATELINE=LOS ANGELES CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: THE JAPANESE PUBLISHER OF A BOOK ON JAPAN'S WARTIME ACTIVITIES IN OCCUPIED CHINA HAS CANCELLED PUBLICATION OF THE WORK, A WORLDWIDE BEST-SELLER CALLED "THE RAPE OF NANKING." AS MIKE O'SULLIVAN REPORTS, THE ACTION HAS RAISED QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPAN'S WILLINGNESS TO ACKNOWLEDGE WARTIME ATROCITIES, WHICH HISTORIANS SAY RANGE FROM MASS KILLINGS TO BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS ON LIVING SUBJECTS. TEXT:CHINESE SCHOLARS SAY 350-THOUSAND PEOPLE WERE KILLED BY JAPAN'S IMPERIAL ARMY IN 1937, IN THE SO-CALLED RAPE OF NANJING (OR NANKING, AS SOME PEOPLE CALL IT). SOME JAPANESE ULTRA-NATIONALISTS, SUCH AS TOKYO UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR NOBUKATSU FUJIOKA [PRON: NOH-BOO-'KAH-TZU FOO-JEE-'OH-KAH], SAY THE MASS KILLING OF CIVILIANS NEVER HAPPENED. ULTRA-NATIONALISTS IN JAPAN HAVE APPLAUDED CANCELLATION OF THE JAPANESE-LANGUAGE VERSION OF THE BOOK BY IRIS CHANG, WHO IS A CHINESE-AMERICAN JOURNALIST. HER JAPANESE PUBLISHER, KASHIWA SHOBO [PRON: 'KAH-SHEE-WAH 'SHOH-BOH], SAYS THE BOOK WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE SHE REFUSED TO CORRECT ITS FACTUAL ERRORS. THE AUTHOR ACCUSES OF KASHIWA SHOBO OF CENSORSHIP AND OF GIVING IN TO THREATS BY RIGHT-WING CRITICS. ONE ASIA ANALYST DEFENDS THE PUBLISHER. FRANK GIBNEY OF THE PACIFIC BASIN INSTITUTE SAYS MANY JAPANESE ARE AWARE OF THEIR COUNTRY'S WARTIME BEHAVIOR. /// GIBNEY ACT /// THINKING JAPANESE, AS THE SAYING GOES, KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. THEY DON'T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT IT, AND THEY'D LIKE TO SWEEP IT UNDER THE RUG. BUT IN POINT OF FACT, THERE HAVE BEEN ABOUT 10 OR 15 BOOKS WRITTEN BY JAPANESE DENOUNCING THE NANJING MASSACRE, IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, AND EXPOSING IT FOR WHAT IT WAS, OVER THE LAST 10 OR 15 YEARS. SO WHEN PEOPLE LIKE IRIS CHANG WRITE AND SAY THAT EVERYONE IN JAPAN IS AFRAID TO TALK ABOUT THIS, THEY'RE WRONG. /// END ACT /// IN FACT, MR. GIBNEY HAS WRITTEN THE FOREWORD TO AN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BOOK BY JAPANESE WRITER KATSUISHI HONDA [PRON: KAHT-SOO-'EE-SHEE 'HOHN-DAH], CALLED "THE NANJING MASSACRE." THAT WRITER SAYS BETWEEN 100-THOUSAND AND 200-THOUSAND CHINESE CIVILIANS DIED AT NANJING, AND THAT THEY WERE VICTIMS OF A SYSTEMATIC CAMPAIGN OF TERROR BY JAPAN'S ARMY. (THE BOOK WILL BE RELEASED LATER THIS MONTH BY THE PUBLISHER M-E SHARPE.) THE PROBLEM, SAYS MR. GIBNEY, IS THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAS NOT HONESTLY ADMITTED TO THE COUNTRY'S WARTIME RECORD. ANOTHER RESEARCHER, SHELDON HARRIS, HAS STUDIED A JAPANESE ARMY UNIT -- UNIT 731 -- THAT CONDUCTED EXPERIMENTS WITH BIOLOGICAL AGENTS ON CHINESE AND KOREAN CIVILIANS AND ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR. HE SAYS ITS RECORD OF ATROCITIES RIVALS THAT OF THE GERMAN NAZIS, BUT THAT GERMANY HAS ADMITTED ITS WARTIME ACTIONS. /// HARRIS ACT /// IT'S A VERY SAD SITUATION, WHEN ONE COMPARES THE OPEN-NESS OF THE GERMANS, THE RECEPTIVENESS TO ADMISSION OF GUILT, AND OF CONTRITION, WHEREAS THE JAPANESE RULING ELITE WILL SIMPLY NOT ADMIT GUILT AND CERTAINLY WILL NOT OFFER A SINCERE APOLOGY. IT'S GOING TO TAKE ANOTHER GENERATION. /// END ACT /// MR. HARRIS SAYS FORMER PRISONERS OF WAR, WORKERS IN FORCED LABOR CAMPS, AND THE SO-CALLED COMFORT WOMEN WHO SERVED JAPANESE TROOPS AS SEX SLAVES SELDOM FIND REDRESS IN JAPANESE COURTS. STILL, HE SAYS THERE IS DISCUSSION IN JAPAN OF THE COUNTRY'S WARTIME RECORD. HIS OWN BOOK, CALLED "FACTORIES OF DEATH," IS BEING PUBLISHED IN JAPANESE THIS MONTH BY KASHIWA SHOBO, THE SAME PUBLISHER THAT CANCELLED IRIS CHANG'S "RAPE OF NANKING." MR. HARRIS EXPECTS A WHIRLWIND OF CONTROVERSY WILL EMERGE AROUND HIS BOOK. BUT HE SAYS IT IS BASED ON SOUND SCHOLARSHIP, AND HE IS CONFIDENT IT CAN WITHSTAND THE SCRUTINY OF ITS RIGHT-WING JAPANESE CRITICS. (THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VERSION OF "FACTORIES OF DEATH" BY SHELDON HARRIS IS PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE.) (SIGNED) NEB/MOS/WTW 08-Jun-99 5:45 PM EDT (2145 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
