Guangdong Propaganda Department: On the morning of May 17, a Huanan Agricultural University PhD student hanged himself and passed away. The media must not investigate, report, or comment on the incident. If necessary, cover the story in strict accordance with police wire copy. (May 18, 2013)

广东省委宣传部：5月17日早上华南农业大学一博士生上吊自杀身亡，各媒体不采访报道评论，必要时严格按警方通稿刊播。

Guangdong Propaganda Department: Regarding the planned Binhai power plant in Shenzhen and related issues; and the demolition and relocation of a public cemetery for victims of the Anti-Japanese War in Guangzhou, and related issues; the media must not report or comment. (May 18, 2013)

广东省委宣传部：对深圳滨海电厂规划及相关问题、广州拆迁抗日公墓相关话题，各媒体不报道不评论。

CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, forced demolitions, Guangdong, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, suicide, World War II
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The separate visits by at least four cabinet members, including the deputy prime minister, Taro Aso, were the first to the Yasukuni Shrine by members of the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an outspoken nationalist who took power in December. The large shrine of Japan’s native Shinto religion honors the nation’s war dead, including several who were executed as war criminals after World War II. This has made it a target of condemnation in China and South Korea, both of which suffered greatly as a result of Japan’s empire-building efforts in the early 20th century.

The Japanese news media said that while Mr. Abe refrained from visiting the shrine to avoid provoking China and South Korea, he did send a ritual offering of the branch of a cypress tree, used in traditional Shinto ceremonies. Sunday was the start of a three-day spring festival at the shrine when conservative politicians frequently visit and offer prayers.

[…] Before Mr. Abe took office, there had been widespread concern that he might say or do something to outrage victims of Japanese wartime aggression. But Mr. Abe has so far acted with restraint, apparently eager to avoid isolating Japan in the region. He has responded calmly to almost daily intrusions by Chinese ships into waters claimed by Japan around disputed islands in the East China Sea.

In response, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se cancelled what would have been the two countries’ first ministerial meetings under their new governments, while Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Japan must face its history and respect its neighbors’ feelings. Her comments echoed those of ministry spokesman Hong Lei, who said last month in anticipation of a possible shrine visit by Abe himself that “only when Japan faces up to the past can it embrace the future.”

At Bloomberg last week, author Pankaj Mishra grappled with Japan’s “extreme case of forgetfulness, ignorance and self-absorption,” while acknowledging the “absurdity” and “hypocrisy” of the Allies’ post-war Tokyo Trials.

[…] Yushukan [the museum at the Yasukuni Shrine] takes too many liberties with historical accuracy. It presents the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, which inaugurated a particularly deranged phase of Japanese militarism, as an act of “legitimate self-defense.” The Rape of Nanjing in 1937 is referred to as the Nanjing Incident in which “Chinese soldiers in civilian clothes” were “severely prosecuted.”

[…] Nothing undermines this litany of half-truths, omissions, suppressions and outright falsehoods than the simple failure to acknowledge that Japan’s pan-Asianist crusade, which claimed more than 10 million lives in China alone, came as a calamity to most Asians.

But it is a bit unfair to expect Japan’s conservative rulers today to periodically denounce their country’s short-lived empire and produce apologies on demand to its former enemies while British Tories propose to celebrate their imperial past in revised history textbooks.

[…] As Japan searches, still confusedly, for a new identity within Asia, it may come to appreciate, as Jeff Kingston, a close observer of contemporary Japan, writes, “the potential benefits of reassuring past enemies.” But how will the effort at reconciliation with victims of Japanese aggression shape official memories of Japan’s war in Asia?

A Hefei restaurateur named Xu recently confronted Japan’s war history in his own way by naming his restaurant’s toilets ‘Yasukuni Shrine’. From Amy Li at South China Morning Post:

A diner who recently ate at the restaurant ended up taking photos of the newly named restroom and posting them on Weibo, where they went viral and triggered mixed reactions.

“All restrooms in China should adopt this name,” wrote a blogger.

Some others deemed the “patriotic” act too extreme.

Wang Kaiyu, a researcher at Anhui’s Academy of Social Sciences, said Xu’s actions were understandable, but not “appropriate.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2013 Sichuan earthquake, earthquakes, Japan, Japan relations, natural disasters, rape of nanking, Shinzo Abe, south korea, World War II, Yasukuni Shrine
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Succumbing to a kung fu master: it’s all in a day’s work.

SARFT demand has forced “Anti-Japanese War” film and television productions to saturate the market. Programming on the Sino-Japanese War, part of the Pacific theater of World War II, makes for great patriotic entertainment. While studios try new twists, like World War II kung fu, it’s a struggle to keep this material fresh.

In a February 4 story, the Qiangjiang Evening News reports on the business of war at Hengdian World Studios, China’s answer to Hollywood.

Shi Zhongpeng, a 26-year-old Heng piao [Hengdian World Studios commuter], has suddenly become an Internet star by “dying” eight times in one day while playing the role of Japanese soldier in different productions.

Shi Zhongpeng’s fame rose from widespread online reports on the “Hengdian Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Base.” In 2012, Hengdian Studios received 150 production teams, 48 of which made films of TV shows about the Anti-Japanese War. That amounts to about 30% of all productions. Even Hengdian Studios Entertainment Channel couldn’t help poking fun of the trend on Weibo, writing, “Today, there will be another 300 devils executed.” And the statistics are even more convincing. The Hengdian Studios Actors Guild employed 300,000 extras (including special extras) in 2012, and 60% of them had played “devils.”

Shi Zhongpeng is a case in point.

Shi says he has been in Hengdian for four years, and most often, he has played a Japanese soldier. In 2012, he participated in over 30 Anti-Japanese War productions and played a Japanese soldier over 200 times. On his most productive day, he “died” eight times. As an experienced “devil,” Shi summarizes what he’s learned in one sentence: “The more horrible you look, the better.” The casting teams specifically select people who are less attractive and somewhat vicious-looking to play “devils.” So during interviews, Shi hunches his back, squints his eyes, and presents a fierce, wretched look to boost his chances of being chosen for the part. His biggest wish is to play an Eighth Route soldier [from the Communist army] someday.

Besides the extras, full-time actors are also in on the action. Known as the “number one Heng piao,” Lin Jiangguo, from Xianju, Zhejiang Province, had roles in Jianghu Er’nu, I Want to be an Eighth Route Soldier, and Martyrs last year, all anti-Japanese productions. He has always played the awe-inspiring, righteous lead role or lead supporting role. Though “beating the devils” is indulgently satisfying, he feels exhausted after the three productions. But he still has to defeat more “devils” in 2013.

In the beginning of the New Year, Anti-Japanese War productions are still on the rise. According to the managing company of Hengdian Studios, nine out of 19 current productions are related to the Anti-Japanese War. To accommodate the high demand, Hengdian Studios is planning to build more Republican-era [1912-1949] sets. For example, a port city district will be added on Guangzhou Street; in the Revolutionary Expo City, another Republican city will be built.

Read more about China’s anti-Japanese culture from CDT.

Via AmazeNews. Translation by Junebug.

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Sharp Arrow Operation (利箭行动) has something for everyone: it is just the latest in a decades-long line of World War II TV dramas, but with a martial arts kick. Shot at Hengdian World Studios in Zhejiang Province, Sharp Arrow’s 35 episodes cost RMB 50,000,000 (US$8 million). It is the big-budget, action-packed answer to the demands of state and public.

And so a new genre is born: the World War II kung fu show.

As this gif makes the rounds online, netizens chuckle at the fictional bloodbath:

@hesnet: A Japanese man came to visit China. His first stop was Zhejiang. He found a local guide and gave her 3000 yuan, telling her his grandfather had died fighting in China. He wanted her to take him to the location of the worst Japanese casualties to pay his respects. With money in hand, the guide had him spend 300 yuan on a car, and off they drove. An hour later, she announced that they had arrived. As soon as he stepped out of the car, he saw the sign: Hengdian World Studios.

@钢铁侠Z：有一个日本人来中国旅游，第一站到了浙江，他找了一个当地导游，给了3000块钱，说他祖上战死中国，要求导游带他去国内日本人伤亡最惨烈的地方祭拜，导游收钱后带日本人花300块包了辆车，一个小时后告诉日本人到了，日本人下车一看：横店影视城。

Poster for Sharp Arrow Operation.

@avb001: Q: During the Anti-Japanese War, which Chinese military unit finished off the most devils? A: Bayi Film Studio.

@avb001：问：在抗日战争中，中国军方编制下那个单位消灭鬼子最多？答：八一电影制片厂

Via CDT Chinese.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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The protests were large and sometimes angry, but appeared much better controlled than those over the weekend, which included extensive rioting and vandalism. Many Japanese businesses closed for the day, and a strong police presence seemed to prevent damage.

The Japanese companies that closed included the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, which is Japanese-owned in China. The company said it would reopen Wednesday. Several other large companies, including Mitsubishi and Canon, gave their employees the day off.

Despite the calls for peaceful protests, scattered violence was reported. The Italian consul’s car in Guangzhou was attacked, according to diplomatic sources who asked to remain anonymous.

The same New York Times report describes the scene at the protest at the Japanese embassy in Beijing:

As the day progressed, crowds threw rocks and water bottles at the well-guarded embassy compound. Some of the banners were crude, with sexual undertones that might have reflected the Japanese military’s brutal wartime treatment of Chinese, including the systematic rape of Chinese women during its 14-year invasion and occupation of parts of the country. One banner showed a Chinese soldier castrating a Japanese soldier, while a popular image depicted Japan’s national flag as a white sanitary napkin with a spot of blood in the middle.

CNN reports that several Japanese manufacturers have temporarily closed operations in China during the protests:

Rowdy demonstrations also took place near Japanese consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenyang, according to CNN affiliate I-Cable. The protests appeared to be much more orderly than those that took place in many cities over the weekend, some of which turned violent.

But they spurred some of Japan’s biggest manufacturers — Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Panasonic and Canon — to halt production at some of their plants in China. Panasonic reported Monday that it would stop work at three Chinese plants after two of them were damaged during Saturday’s protests.

China normally clamps down on public demonstrations, but has allowed the protests to go ahead. Protesters carried banners that read “Don’t Forget the National Humiliation,” according to photographs distributed by the state-run news agency Xinhua.

In Hunan, Japanese cars were banned from the road to avoid any accidents or vandalism in case protesters targeted them for attack. Business Week looks at the market implications of the protests for Japanese car makers, and says it may prove to be a bigger disaster for them than last year’s tsunami:

As violent protests over control of islands claimed by both nations flare up, China’s Passenger Car Association predicts Japanese brands will lose their lead over German nameplates in the country for the first time since 2005.

“The repercussions for Japanese carmakers are very serious and will last for a long time,” said Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary general of the Passenger Car Association. “There are plenty of choices. Why bother with Japanese brands if there are concerns of safety due to anti-Japan sentiment?”

Consumers shunning Japanese models may turn to market leaders General Motors Co. (GM), which this year has sold 1.84 million cars in China under brands including Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac, and Volkswagen AG (VOW), whose two joint ventures have sold a total of 1.49 million vehicles this year. The Japanese leader, Nissan, has sold some 485,000 vehicles in China so far this year.

On his New Yorker blog, Evan Osnos writes about the protests in Beijing, and the role of the government in encouraging and also controlling them:

Moving along the sidewalks with the protesters and onlookers and police, I was struck most of all by how hard the Chinese government was working to keep its people happy, to show them that it is doing what they want. Nationalism is a volatile force, and it would be easy for protests to expand into criticism of the state. Chinese authorities have no choice but to let their people blow off steam over Japan, but they are determined to keep them on message.

While protesters’ anger toward Japan was virulent and often violent on the streets around China, Chinese netizens took a more satirical view by mocking the official media’s coverage of the issue.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-Japan protests, anti-japan protests 2012, history, nationalism, World War II
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The ongoing dispute over the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku in Japanese, also feeds the flames. Uninhabited and without any known natural resources, the Diaoyu controversy is nonetheless a cause célèbre. Two weeks ago, Japan arrested Hong Kong activists on Diaoyu, leading to protests in China. The Tokyo governor’s calls to purchase the islands have further stoked tensions. On Monday, the Japanese ambassador’s car was attacked in Beijing.

Chinese protesters are taking none of this lighty, overturning cars and crying for blood:

corndog: This photo is from an anti-Japanese protest in Western China today. To protect the place from repercussions, the name of the city is not visible. The red banner in the bottom image reads, “Even if China is filled with graves, we must still kill all Japanese; Even if no grass grows on the mainland, we must still recover Diaoyu.” I’m concerned about these people’s IQs. (August 18, 2012)

性感玉米：图为今天中国西边某城市的反日游行情况。为防地域攻击，隐去城市名。”哪怕华夏遍地坟，也要杀光日本人；宁可大陆不长草，也要收复钓鱼岛”，这标语，智商捉急。

The novelist Wang Shuo has harsh words for the protesters on Weibo, saying “The same kind of people who are called fascists in Japan and Nazis in Germany are called patriots in China” (有这么一群人，在日本叫法西斯，在德国叫纳粹，在中国叫爱国者).

Read more about the online reaction to the anti-Japan protests from CDT.

Via SneezeBloid. Thanks to @dujuan99 for translating the Wang Shuo post.

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In a fair post-war world, millions of such victims and their heirs would have been entitled to compensation. But Japan pleaded poverty and, in 1951, in a spirit of Cold War solidarity, the United States led more than 40 nations in renouncing their citizens’ claims on Tokyo. The 1951 agreement did not rule out the possibility that Japan would make payments as its economy recovered. But Tokyo stuck rigidly to its not-a-penny policy, with the assiduous support of the U.S. State Department in fighting off claimants. The State Department even slapped down a number of lawsuits by U.S. servicemen who had suffered abominably in Japanese prisoner of war camps, in many cases serving as de facto slaves, doing the most dangerous and unhealthy jobs in Japanese factories and mines.

Japan’s symbolic support for U.S. foreign policy, most notably the Vietnam war, kept Washington on its side in Tokyo’s reparations diplomacy. Japanese diplomats proved adept at exploiting the State Department’s Cold War neuroses. Greatly exaggerating the influence of the left in Japanese politics, they constantly implied that, absent copious “mutual understanding” in Washington, Japan might switch sides and throw in its lot with the Soviet Union.

Japanese officials feared an inundation of millions of claims from China but, although Beijing never signed the 1951 agreement, they nonetheless successfully kept Chinese claimants at bay for decades. In the late 1970s, China’s new supreme leader Deng Xiaoping was persuaded to take a deal: in return for a promise of billions of dollars in Japanese economic aid and technology transfers over subsequent decades, he signed away Chinese citizens’ rights to remunerations. After that, top officials in Beijing proved almost as assiduous as their counterparts in Tokyo and Washington in sweeping victims’ claims under the rug.

In 2007 the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that Chinese have no right to demand war compensation. From the Japan Times:

In ruling on a lawsuit on Japan’s wartime forced labor, Ryoji Nakagawa, presiding justice at the top court’s second petty bench, said, “Chinese people have lost their rights to judicially claim war compensation from Japan, Japanese people or its companies” under the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique.

In the communique that normalized Tokyo-Beijing ties, China declared it “renounces its demand for war reparations from Japan.” The declaration, however, did not specifically refer to individual rights to claim.

The top court ruled the communique was “substantially a peace treaty and is a framework like the San Francisco Peace Treaty” signed between Japan and the Allied powers in 1951 that waived all Allied reparation claims — including the right of individuals to seek compensation.

People who have tried to sue for compensation include Chinese who were forced laborers during World War II and Chinese “comfort women”.

© victoriawu for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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It would be too much to hope that any joint report over the causes and events of the Pacific War would reach accord on every issue. But as partisan as the debate on the Nanjing massacre has often seemed, a close reading of the new report shows that the divide in it over the number killed in that city is not exclusively a political standoff. Instead, it largely reflects scholarly concern over the reliability of the numbers — on both the Chinese and Japanese sides. And it would be unfortunate if the lack of agreement over death tolls obscured the significant new points of consensus.

The main points of agreement constitute a major step forward in Sino-Japanese relations. For years, there have been some historians in Japan moving toward a more moderate position on Nanjing, but there have also been periodic efforts by Japanese officials to sidestep or minimize the issue of Japanese culpability and misbehavior, their sentiments echoed by a small number of textbooks authorized for use in Japan’s classrooms. Japanese leaders have historically ignored pleas to acknowledge fully the extent to which Japan was responsible for Pacific War-era devastation and violence not just in China but also in Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. So, all in all, the report has much to recommend it.

Unfortunately, coverage of its release in the United States has tended to focus on the continued disagreement over the massacre’s death toll. The same has been true in much of the Japanese press. Chinese papers, by contrast, while taking note of the disagreement over numbers, have typically led with what is arguably the much bigger story — Japan’s acknowledgment, in an official report, that the war was due to Japanese aggression.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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He’s been compared to the Tom Hanks character in “The Terminal” by news media the world over, but Feng Zhenghu had never heard of the Hollywood blockbuster until a supporter recently brought him a portable DVD player and a copy of the 2004 Steven Spielberg movie.

“I feel my life is a lot harder than the character’s,” the 55-year-old Chinese human rights activist tells CBS News. “The movie is a romantic comedy, and my story is more of a tragedy.”

Since Nov. 4, Feng has been an unusual fixture at the bustling Narita International Airport outside Tokyo. While the Hanks character became trapped at a JFK terminal when his native country was wiped off the map following a coup, Feng is a Chinese citizen with a valid Japanese visa. He refuses to pass through immigration checkpoints to enter Japan for a simple reason — he wants to go home.

But the Chinese government has blocked his path since mid-June. Airlines in Japan – including U.S.-based Northwest Airlines – denied him boarding four separate times, citing orders from Chinese authorities. On four other instances, he made it as far as Pudong International Airport in Shanghai – only to be sent back to Tokyo in increasingly forceful manners. After the last round of tussles, Feng put his foot down and began camping out at Narita

Read more about Feng Zhenghu on CDT.

Feng’s twitter account @fzhenghu currently has over 4800 followers. His supporters also set up another twitter account in English for him  @fzhenghu_en

Here are some latest updates from his English tweets:(...)
Read the rest of Feng Zhenghu: Changing China from Terminal 1 (592 words)

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Post tags: CBS, Feng Zhenghu, tom hanks, tweets, World War II
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With its bleached imagery in black and white, the movie Nanking Nanking takes on its audience for a journey through the cruelty of the Nanking Massacre, where the Japanese aggressors killed hundreds of thousands Chinese, most of whom were civilians. With a restrained narrative, the production follows the spiritual and physical struggle of an ordinary soldier, and focuses on the residents’ will to resist. It overwhelmed the young viewers…

The movie was directed by Lu Chuan, who won wide fame four years ago for the production “Ke Ke Xi Li”. In producing Nanking Nanking, Lu Chuan has made a point of seeking the truth about the tragic incident. Many details in the plot have reliable historical sources. In representing the incident, he also sought to present the resistance put up by ordinary Chinese people.

Movie Trailer via Youtube:

Below is a news report about the film making and other documentaries and film based on the history of Nanjing Massacre, including an interview with Lu Chuan:

© Sophia Cao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: history, Lu Chuan, movies, Nanjing, Nanjing Massacre, World War II
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…critics say the fault lies with the government itself, for a failure of oversight that allowed the Abandoned Chemical Weapons Disposal Corp. (ACWDC) to misappropriate approximately 100 million yen ($1 million) of public funds. And they question the government’s commitment to removing the weapons, which remain lethal more than 60 years after the war. Cleaning up these caustic reminders of Japanese aggression in China would be a practical way for Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to act on his stated desire to improve relations between the two countries. Yet, while a Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said that the cleanup “is extremely important for improving trust,” the government has not indicated how it plans to get the project back on track — nor has it launched a tendering process for companies to bid for the contract.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party draws important support from organizations that downplay or deny Japanese use of chemical and biological weapons in China during the war. And there are deniers in the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, too: Jin Matsubara, a Democratic parliamentarian known for denying the killing of Chinese civilians by the Japanese Imperial Army in Nanjing in 1937-1938, recently used his speaking time at a Diet session dedicated to discussing the weapons to question their very existence.

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Post tags: chemical weapons, World War II
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China has blocked a Hollywood movie reportedly starring John Cusack and Gong Li from being shot in the country because of concerns about the script, a film official said Wednesday.

Luan Guozhi, director of international cooperation at China’s Film Bureau, declined to reveal the government’s concerns about the story for “Shanghai,” but said the filmmakers could make changes and reapply…

While China’s concerns about the script weren’t immediately clear, Japan’s World War II-era invasion of China is a sensitive topic.

Related Reuters story: China Regulators Now Spooked by Ghost Stories

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Recently, the famous literature critic Ge Hongbing posted an article in his personal blog ‘China: How Should World War II Be Commemorated‘. When the article was re-posted elsewhere, the title was changed to ‘China’s Purpose in Commemorating the Anti-Japan War is Promoting Revenge’. The controversial element in this article is Ge’s view that the Japanese people are also victims of the war, and that China’s revenge-centered education is the main voice commemorating WWII in the form of anti-Japan propaganda.

Within days of its publication, Ge Hongbing received more than seven hundred internet messages cursing its author. Some netizens lashed out at Ge’s grandfather, ‘the infamous traitor Ge Riren’ who ‘was executed by the National Government in 1946 and his property confiscated.’ ‘Ge’s father Ge Bennong named his son Hongbing because he wanted to apologize to the Chinese people so as to enable the Ge family to live a new life without further suppression.’

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In this essay, Fujiwara provides a concise narrative of Japan’s decision to escalate the “China Incident” into a full-scale war by July 1937. This ultimately led to an assault on China’s wartime capital of Nanking by imperial armed forces, who captured it in December. Fujiwara also gives a trenchant, critical account of the Nanking Massacre (a.k.a. “the Rape of Nanking”), plus an admittedly partisan yet nonetheless fair analysis of right-wing views in Japan today that downplay or deny this atrocity. On this last point, Fujiwara argues that Japanese deniers and nationalistic revisionists seek to build a public consensus that will allow their nation to re-emerge as a military power uninhibited from waging future wars based on putatively unwarranted feelings of guilt about the past. [Full text]

See also:

- “Heroic Resistance and Victims of Atrocity: Negotiating the Memory of Japanese Imperialism in Chinese Museums” by Kirk A. Denton

- “Biohazard: Unit 731 in Postwar Japanese Politics of National ‘Forgetfulness‘” by Frederick R. Dickinson

As well as an article about an ongoing dispute between China and Japan over the island of Okinotorishima.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Japan relations, Nanjing Massacre, World War II
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© Sophia Cao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: history, Japan, photos, World War II
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