China has ordered all its tour agencies as well as tourists to boycott a prominent Japanese hotel, after it refused to remove a controversial book from its guest room that claims ‘Nanjing Massacre’ was a complete fabrication. \u00a0\u00a0
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The China National Tourism Administration spokesman described APA Hotel Group’s decision to store the controversial book as an \u00ab\u00a0an open provocation to Chinese tourists. \u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0We demand that all operators with international tours and online platforms completely stop all cooperation with this hotel,\u00a0\u00bb spokesman Zhang said.
He then also urged Chinese tourists, who are either vacationing or have plans to visit Japan, to completely boycott the hotel chain. The APA Hotel Group told CNN via mail that Chinese tourists have already started cancelling their reservations, but claimed the impact on its business has been minimum, arguing that booking by other foreign nationalities is continuing smoothly.
Last week, APA did not mince any words as it came in complete defence of the book, which is apparently written by its CEO Toshio Motoya.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\u00ab\u00a0Although we acknowledge that historic interpretation and education vary among nations, please clearly understand that the book is not aimed to criticize any specific state or nation, but for the purpose of letting readers learn the fact-based true interpretation of modern history,\u00a0\u00bb the hotel said.
The entire fiasco started as soon as videos of the controversial book went viral on Chinese Weibo, evoking widespread anger and criticism across Mainland China. The video was reportedly uploaded by two tourists who came across the book while their stay at one of the local APA Hotels in Japan.
The book bluntly states that China’s claim of 300,000 people dying in the ‘Nanjing Massacre’ is absolutely absurd. It based its argument on the rationale that the population of Nanjing city in 1937 was only 200,000, far less than the actual ‘death figure’ claimed by Chinese authorities.
‘Nanjing Massacre’ is a sore chapter in China- Japan relation, with former accusing Japan of perpetuating wartime aggression against its citizens. As per Beijing’s version, Japanese troops pounding of Nanjing city during the second Sino-Japanese war led to death of nearly 300,000 people. There were also claims\u00a0\u00a0that the Japanese army raped several Chinese women during the massacre.<\/p>\n