On July 7, 2008, officers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force visited Nanjing, the ancient capital of China, for an artillery demonstration â?? a visit barely mentioned in the Chinese media, even though it was the first time Japanese soldiers returned to the scene of the crime â?? the Nanjing massacre â?? since Japan surrendered in World War II in 1945.
Unlike in recent years, there were no special commemoration rites on the anniversary of the so-called Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7, 1937 that Japan used as a pretext to launch a large-scale invasion of China. Later that year, on Dec. 13, 1937, Japanese troops entered Nanjing and unleashed a reign of terror, executing prisoners of war and civilians, raping women by the thousands, and burning and looting the city. The ravaging ran through the next six weeks, leaving the once-grand capital of China a shattered and smoldering husk.
Tokyo and Nanjing are only three hours distant by plane, but in terms of public history and Japan's war memory of what happened from 1931 to '45, they are poles apart, and one despairs at the prospects for reconciliation over the shared history of China and Japan.
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