After recent furor, Japanese war criminals’ memorials found online
An online memorial platform in Chongqing apologized for a failure of management on Tuesday after memorial pages for Japanese war criminals including Yasuji Okamura and Iwane Matsui were found on its website.
Both of the two Japanese were commanders leading the Japanese troops invading China during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
The platform — www.xazjw.com — has had its operations suspended and will make thorough rectification, and it promises full cooperation with the investigation from authorities, a statement from the company said.
According to an announcement by the Wanzhou government of Chongqing on Tuesday, local authorities are investigating.
The local public security department has notified relevant provinces and cities to verify the persons who uploaded the memorial pages, and said the case will be seriously dealt with in accordance with the law and regulations.
On Tuesday, the platform issued an apology for harming national sentiment by allowing web pages memorializing Japanese war criminals to be published online.
The website was established by Zhuhai Xiaoai Zhijia Science and Tech Co in Guangdong province in 2009.
The online memorial hall was established in 2014, with memorial pages uploaded by netizens themselves.
However, without real-name registration and content review supervision, some netizens uploaded web content commemorating Japanese war criminals in 2014 and 2015.
The notice said the management of the website was transferred from Zhuhai to Chongqing’s Wanzhou district in 2021, with Chongqing Xiaoai Zhijia Internet Tech Group established in the same year.
The platform has been run from the municipality’s Wanzhou and Yubei districts ever since.
Last week, a woman named Wu Aping was placed under criminal detention for commemorating Buddhist memorial tablets of Japanese war criminals in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
On the basis of the incident in Nanjing, the National Religious Affairs Administration has recently called on all regions in the country to carry out comprehensive checks and rectification at religious sites to avoid such incidents.
Many Buddhist associations in many provinces including Guangdong, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, have required their members to register all memorial tablets over the past weekend, making sure all those who paid for tablets can be traced and misconduct reported in a timely manner.