Yachi, also a national security adviser to Abe, reiterated in the Tokyo meeting Japan’s stance regarding China’s move to have documents touching on the Nanjing Massacre registered in UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” programme, the official said.
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Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government’s chief spokesman, told reporters that UNESCO’s decision reflected only China’s views on the 1937 assault on Nanjing, when Japanese troops killed tens of thousands of civilians in the city.
Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi has met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
“Japan’s protest is unreasonable”, said Guo Biqiang of the Second Historical Archives of China.
Japan’s official position is that “the killing of a large number of noncombatants, looting and other acts occurred”, but that “it is hard to determine” the actual number of victims.
Japan’s government may halt funds for UNESCO over a United Nations decision on including documents of the Nanjing massacre.
The “Documents of the Nanjing Massacre” consists of court documents from the worldwide Military Tribunal for the Far East that convicted several Japanese as war criminals and a Chinese military tribunal, among others.
“Japan will adhere to the path of peaceful development and make contributions to world peace on the basis of learning lessons from history”, said Abe.
Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General, included Chinese documents concerning the 1937 Nanjing massacre into the Memory of the World list last on Friday – an action which provoked Japan’s backlash.
In an October 11 speech, Toshihiro Nikai, General Council chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said: “I have said that Japan should not pay for UNESCO expenses”.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the two sides will talk about bilateral and worldwide issues and ways to “manage and control disputes”. Estimates on the number of deaths range from 40,000 to 300,000.
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If Japan still deems itself as a responsible member of UNESCO, it should respect the world body’s decision and use it as a mirror to correct its own perception of history.
