Japan hotel chain under fire over book by owner

‘Real History’ denies accounts of Rape of Nanking

TOKYO — A fast-growing Japanese hotel chain is facing criticism over a book penned by the chain’s owner that says the Rape of Nanking was fabricated.

Tokyo-based APA Group, operator of 400plus hotels, drew fire for spreading the revisionist views of company president Toshio Motoya by putting the books in hotel guest rooms and also selling them. China has lodged a complaint, but APA says it stands by its owner’s views.

The issue is the latest flap between the Asian neighbors over unhealed wounds from Japan’s aggression before and during World War II. It follows a diplomatic row with South Korea over a statue representing “comfort women” who were used for sex in military-linked wartime brothels.

The issue surfaced this week when contributors KatAndSid posted a video on a social networking site describing the English version of “The Real History of Japan: Theoretical Modern History II,” a book Motoya wrote under the pen name Seiji Fuji.

The video shows passages from the book calling the 1937 Rape of Nanking an “imaginary” event concocted by China to blame Japan. The book also denies that Japan’s use of “comfort women” involved forced prostitution.

The massacre of Chinese citizens by the Japanese military in Nanking, now called Nanjing, is one of the biggest flashpoints between the two countries. China says up to 300,000 people were killed, while Japanese nationalists say far fewer died or deny there was any massacre.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also has expressed skepticism about accounts of events in the city. The inclusion of Rape of Nanking documents on a UNESCO heritage list in October 2015 prompted Japan to suspend its contribution to the United Nation’s educational unit.

When asked about the book, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that “some forces in Japan have been denying history from the outset and even attempting to distort it.” Coercive recruitment of comfort women and the Nanking massacre were crimes against humanity committed by wartime Japan and “an iron-clad fact recognized by the international community,” she said.

APA also reiterated its position that there was no documentary proof that 300,000 people were massacred in the Rape of Nanking.

APA has expanded quickly in recent years. About 5 percent of its guests are Chinese and another 3 percent are South Korean, according to the chain. APA opened its first overseas hotel in New Jersey in 2015 and has since purchased a hotel chain in Canada.

So far, the controversy has had no major impact on business, APA said.

SHIZUO KAMBAYASHI/AP Pedestrians pass an APA Hotel in Tokyo. The hotel chain is facing criticism over “The Real History of Japan: Theoretical Modern History II,” a book penned by the chain’s owner.