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2012 November 14 - 20 TOP3 [HISTORY]

Ex-Tokyo governor denies Nanjing Massacre

Regarding the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, former Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro on November 15 said, “Give us evidence showing that the Japanese Imperial Army killed 400 thousand people. It was Shina-jin (discriminatory word referring to Chinese residents) who killed Shina-jin.”

He made the remark at a press conference to announce that his recently-established political party “Taiyo no To” will merge with a local political party led by Nagoya City Mayor Kawamura Takeshi.

Nagoya Mayor Kawamura is also part of a “there was no Nanjing Massacre” knot. When a delegation of Nagoya’s sister-city of Nanjing visited the Nagoya City office in February, Kawamura said, “There wasn’t a slaughter of innocent people.” He also said on previous occasions that the people were killed in gunfights, and that the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall exhibits are causing Japanese people to misunderstand the incident.

(Two days after this, Ishihara cancelled Taiyo no To’s merger with Kawamura’s party)

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Former Tokyo Governor Ishihara formed his new party without dissolving the other party he previously established, the Sunrise Party of Japan, and just changed its name to Taiyo no To.

He reportedly did so in order to take over 43 million yen in subsidies the Sunrise Party had received from the government.

At a press conference held on November 13 to announce the formation of his new party, Ishihara said, “The founding of Taiyo no To is just one step up. I don’t care if it’s absorbed by other parties and vanishes.” On the very day he established the new party, he received the 43 million yen subsidy paid from tax revenues.

Related past articles
>JCP Nagoya City Assembly members protest against mayor’s denial of Nanjing Massacre [February 23, 2012]