The Narratives of Chinese Victimhood

The analysis of victimhood narratives is excluded from just war theory and the spectrum of judgemental war memory, but will be included in this research because this research considers (1) narratives of Japanese victimhood in the war typically underpin Japanese post-war pacifism, and (2) narratives of Chinese victimhood in wartime

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1972-1978

(24) 1981-1989

(21) 1990-1997

(23) 2002-2010

(19) 2012-2017 (15)

None

the Konoe Cabinet the Military Headquarter the Konoe Cabinet and the Military Headquarter

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typically provide evidence of Japanese atrocities and therefore a progressive (or progressive-leaning) rendition of the war. Narrative analysis of victimhood in both wartime Japan and China reveals the tension between Japanese people’s national identity as both an aggressor and victim in the war. In this section, there is textual analysis regarding the Nanjing Massacre, ‘comfort woman’, war crimes of the Unit 731,

‘Three-Alls Operation’, and resistance activities by Chinese people against Japan.

Nanjing Masssacre

In the 24 textbooks of the 1970s, there were nine textbooks depicted ‘massive injuries’ of Chinese people when the Japanese military occupied Nanjing in 1937, but only one textbook (4.2%) defined the war crime as ‘Nanjing Massacre’ (nankin gyakusatsu). In 19 of 21 textbooks of 1980s, ‘massive injuries’ to Chinese people during the Japanese military occupation of Nanjing were mentioned, and of these, 12 textbooks (57.1%) used the term ‘Nanjing Massacre’. In the 23 textbooks from the 1990s, 21 of 23 textbooks (91.3%) defined the massive killings as ‘Nanjing Massacre’.

From 2002 to 2010, seven of 19 textbooks (36.8%) called the massive killings ‘Nanjing Massacre’, and another 10 textbooks (52.6%) called the massive killings ‘Nanjing Incident’ (nankin jiken). In the 15 textbooks which were published from 2012 to 2017, nine of them (60%) adopted ‘Nanjing Incident’ as the definition of the massive killings in Nanjing, but only three textbooks used ‘Nanjing Massacre’ (20%). From Figure 4, it is clear to see that calling the massive killings in Nanjing a ‘massacre’ was the standard in textbooks which were published in both the 1980s and 1990s. This number reached a peak in the 1990s and declined drastically from the 2000s. At the same time, the number of the textbooks which called the massive killings an ‘incident’ began to increase. Even though most of the textbooks which were published after the 2000s depicted the historical facts of ‘massive injuries included women and children in Nanjing’, the term

‘Nanjing massacre’ was gradually replaced by ‘Nanjing incident’. This reveals the textbooks’ preferences regarding what to call the massive killings in Nanjing has changed (Figure 4).

In the depiction of the massive killings in Nanjing, the books mentioning the numbers of Chinese victims changed accordingly, too. In the 24 textbooks of 1970s, two of them

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confirmed the number of the Chinese victims were around 42,000; in the 21 textbooks of the 1980s, two textbooks confirmed the victims were ‘over 100,000’ and another four textbooks confirmed the victims were approximately 200,000 to 300,000. In the 1990s, one of 23 textbooks said the Chinese believed the number of victims reached to 300,000, and the other 17 textbooks confirmed the number of victims was over 100,000.

In the 19 textbooks which were published in the 2000s, only two textbooks mentioned the number of the victims were around 200,000, while another seven textbooks questioned the number of Chinese victims in a footnote. In the 15 textbooks which were published from 2012 to 2017, seven textbooks questioned the number of victims, and all 15 history textbooks erased the precise number of Chinese victims. From this analysis, it can be seen that in the 1980s and 1990s, most of the textbooks preferred to give detailed numbers of Chinese victims from the time when the Japanese military occupied Nanjing in December of 1937. However, after 2000s, the numbers of Chinese victims given using the vocabulary of ‘many’ (Figure 4).

The mentions of the number of Chinese people killed when the Japanese military occupied Nanjing highlights how the Japanese military’s movements in China were unjust. Meanwhile, the erasure of the number reveals a reduction in the level of critical judgement towards the Japanese military’s war acts in China.

Figure 4

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1972-1979

(24) 1980-1989

(21) 1990-1999

(23) 2002-2010

(19) 2012-2017 (15)

Massive

Injuries/casualties Nanjing Incident Nanjing Massacre

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The ‘Comfort Women’

The treatment of the ‘comfort women’ (ianfu) was first mentioned in history textbooks in 1997. In the history textbooks which were approved in 1997, there were seven textbooks⁹ which mentioned the facts of the ‘comfort women’ in a column or text by saying that the Japanese military forced Korean and Taiwanese women to serve the military and they worked in comfort stations or military factories, or did civil work etc., to make up for labor shortages in the war. In the 19 history textbooks which were published between 2002 to 2010, the mentions of the comfort women drastically declined to three, and only one of the 15 textbooks which were published from 2012 to 2017 mentioned the ‘comfort women’ (Figure 5).

The Unit 731 and the ‘Three-Alls Operation’

The war crimes of Unit 731 and the ‘Three-Alls Operation’ (burn all, kill all and loot all) the Japanese military had committed in China in wartime have been mentioned in textbooks, but changes in these narratives are observed as well. Of the 102 history textbooks which were published from 1972 to 2017, only two history textbooks mentioned the Japanese military’s gas warfare in mainland China (Osaka Shoseki 1993 No.753 and Osaka Shoseki 2002 No.703), and one textbook mentioned the human experiments of the Unit 731 (Kyōiku Shuppan 1997 No.762). The narratives of the

‘Three-Alls Operation’ are mentioned in five textbooks in the 1980s, 12 textbooks in the 1990s, three textbooks in 2000s, and one of the 15 textbooks published from 2012 to 2016 (Figure 5).

China’s Resistance against Japan

In the 24 history textbooks from the 1970s, four textbooks said that when the Japanese military occupied the major cities and railways in mainland China, their occupation of ‘points and lines’ faced fierce resistance from Chinese people. In this

9 The seven textbooks which were qualified and published in 1997 and being used till 2001 mentioned the perpetrations on the comfort women. The seven textbooks were: No.759 of Nihon Shoseki, No.764 of Teikoku Shoin, No.763 of Shimizu Shoin, No.762 of Kyōiku Shuppan, No.761 of Osaka Shoseki, No.760 of Tokyo Shoseki, and No.765 of Nihon Shoseki.

Details see Appendix 1.

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narrative, the main armed resistance was organized by Kuomintang and Communist Party of China guerillas. They forced Japan to send massive numbers of troops into China to quell the violence. This can be seen as an indicator that the Japanese military’s movements in mainland China were unjust and China’s resistance to against Japan was just. In the textbooks which were published in the 1980s and 1990s, narratives stressing China’s resistance against the Japanese occupation were mentioned in 13 of 21 textbooks (61.9%) in the 1980s and 11 of 23 textbooks (47.8%) in the 1990s. The number declined to five out of the 19 textbooks (26.3%) which were published in the 2000s and four of the 15 textbooks (26.7%) which were published from 2012 to 2016 (Figure 5). The decline in the number of narratives regarding Chinese people’s resistance against Japan constitutes a dilution of the image of the Japanese military’s war crimes in mainland China.

Figure 5

According to the qualitative research, it was observed that while the definition of

‘aggressive war’ and depictions of ‘aggressive movitaions’ were emphasized in most of the textbooks which were approved and published in the 1980s and 1990s, depictions of the Japanese military’s ‘war conduct’ in China increased accordingly. While the depiction of ‘the nature of the war’ shifted from ‘aggression’ to ‘occupation’ from the 2000s, mentions of the Japanese military’s ‘war conduct’ accordingly declined from 2000s as well.

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1972-1978 (24) 1981-1989 (21) 1990-1997 (23) 2002-2010 (19) 2012-2017 (15) The Comfort Women the Unit 731 /Gas Warfare the Three Alls Policy Chinese Resistance

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