TOKYO, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum is one of the few public facilities in Japan that still uses the term "Nanjing Massacre" in its exhibit descriptions.
However, the new exhibition text unveiled by the museum on July 28 shows that starting in March next year, references to the "Nanjing Massacre" will be changed to the "Nanjing Incident."
The Nagasaki municipal government, which oversees the museum, claimed that the revision was intended to "align" the wording with official Japanese terminology and mainstream textbooks.
The Nanjing Massacre, backed by overwhelming evidence, is a horrendous crime committed by Japanese militarists that admits no distortion or denial. The Tokyo Trials ruled in black and white that the wartime atrocities of the Japanese army in Nanjing constituted a "massacre," not a mere "incident."
Many Japanese observers therefore see the move as another step backward in Japan's reckoning with its wartime past.
DECADES-LONG DISPUTE OVER EXHIBITS
The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum stands about 150 meters southeast of the atomic bomb hypocenter. In its third exhibition hall, a large timeline titled "The Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War" chronicles the historical arc from 1931 to 1945.
Under the entry for 1937, it reads: "December: Nanjing was occupied; a massacre occurred," accompanied by a photograph of Japanese troops checking Chinese civilians fleeing the war.
Behind the exhibits lies a decades-long dispute over how history should be presented at the museum. Noboru Sakiyama, 67, chairman of the Nagasaki Museum for Human Rights and Peace, knows the ins and outs all too well.
The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum opened in April 1996, but the dispute over the content of its exhibits had already begun before then.
According to Sakiyama, the museum originally planned to display historical photographs related to the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, and the Japanese military's wartime "comfort women" system.
Before the museum opened, however, the Nagasaki municipal government, under pressure from conservative lawmakers and right-wing groups, announced that a photograph of the Nanjing Massacre would be replaced with one showing Japanese troops "entering Nanjing."
That change sparked strong opposition from progressive groups, prompting the museum to replace the photograph with a still image taken from video footage showing Japanese soldiers driving Nanjing residents toward massacre sites.
The backlash from Japan's right-wing forces intensified in the month the museum opened. Over a hundred sound trucks were mobilized to stage protests around Nagasaki city hall and the atomic bomb museum. An organization calling itself the "citizens' association to correct the Nagasaki atomic bomb exhibits," founded that same year, even filed a lawsuit against the museum.
Under mounting pressure, the Nagasaki municipal government announced that year that it would remove the relevant photographs, text and video materials from the museum.
The Japanese right-wing forces did not let up in the years that followed, and their campaigns only grew more aggressive.
In October 2020, Masamitsu Watanabe, head of the aforementioned group for correcting atomic bomb exhibits, visited the museum and demanded that it revise the references to the "Nanjing Massacre" in its exhibits. The group also repeatedly urged conservative lawmakers to pressure the Nagasaki municipal government.
In response, 20 organizations, including the Nagasaki Museum for Human Rights and Peace, formed the "Nagasaki citizens' association for atomic bomb exhibits to be shared with the world," calling on the city to maintain the term "Nanjing Massacre" in the exhibits.
Sakiyama still remembers the words of former Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh: "Nagasaki has always called internationally for building a world free of nuclear weapons, but without our own reflection, appeals for the abolition of nuclear weapons will never reach the world."
AN ABSURD "CITIZEN'S LETTER"
Last year brought a major shift in the decades-long dispute surrounding the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
In the fall of 2025, the municipal government gave an interim report to the museum's operation council on the detailed plan for renewing the exhibits, proposing to change the description of "Nanjing was occupied; a massacre occurred" to "The Nanjing Incident, in which large numbers of civilians and prisoners of war were killed."
The change immediately drew opposition from numerous progressive groups. At a meeting of the museum's operation council this February, a representative of a Japanese civic group bluntly pointed out that exhibits downplaying Japan's history as an aggressor would be difficult for the international community to accept.
Yet on the local government's website, a comment on the museum's exhibits steeped in historical revisionism was selected for publication in the citizens' opinions and suggestions section.
The "suggestion" raised a string of absurd claims, such as demanding the museum to "immediately end the display of the Nanjing Incident, since there is no evidence for it," asserting that "the Nanjing Incident is clearly propaganda by the Chinese or U.S. governments," and arguing that "many foreigner and students visit the museum, and the museum must stop disseminating false history."
In response to the opinion, the relevant division of the Nagasaki municipal government said the description "Nanjing was occupied; a massacre occurred" would, in the exhibit renewal, reference the wording used in junior high and high school history textbooks approved by Japan's education ministry.
More tellingly, Watanabe, who has long pressured the museum to change how it describes the "Nanjing Massacre," participated in discussions on the exhibit renewal plan as a member of the museum's operation council.
Takakage Fujita, secretary-general of the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, said that for various reasons, right-wing forces are infiltrating the museum's operation council.
He noted that the Nanjing Massacre was one of the most brutal crimes committed by Japan in its modern history and stands as an emblematic event demonstrating the nature of Japan's war of aggression.
Eighty-one years after the end of the war, Nagasaki is taking advantage of the museum's exhibit renewal to replace the historical description of "massacre" with the term "Nanjing Incident," which denies the aggressive nature of the brutal act, Fujita said, adding that such a move is unacceptable under any circumstances.
HISTORY OF AGGRESSION MUST NOT BE ERASED
In March this year, Nagasaki City finalized the plan for updating exhibits at the atomic bomb museum. The third exhibition hall will see the most sweeping changes: the wall-length timeline titled "The Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War" will be removed altogether, replaced by exhibits on the two World Wars.
The change troubles Sakiyama deeply. "We have called for the timeline to be kept, as well as the video section, where footage gives a clear and direct sense of Japan's history of aggression. But they plan to turn that area into a lounge," he said.
The current timeline makes several references to Japan's invasion of China. In 1937, multiple entries read: "July: The Lugou Bridge Incident; war with China begins," "August: Naval aircraft took off from Omura Airport, crossed the sea and bombed Nanjing," and "December: Nanjing was occupied; a massacre occurred."
"Without the wartime timeline, young Japanese visitors will struggle to grasp the full picture of history," Sakiyama said. "These events were originally laid out clearly in the timeline. It is difficult to convey such an overarching historical context through individual exhibit panels."
The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum has been one of the few public institutions in Japan still using the term "Nanjing Massacre." Sakiyama is deeply concerned that the museum is now set to give ground as well.
In his view, the change reflects a political trend that has continued since the 2015 "Abe Statement" and has been further intensified under the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi -- an attempt "to wipe out Japan's history of aggression in past wars."
Sakiyama said many ordinary Japanese people, particularly the younger generation, view Japan as a victim of the war, especially because of the atomic bombings.
He said messages left by young visitors at the Nagasaki Museum for Human Rights and Peace show that many young Japanese people only learned about Japan's aggression against other Asian countries and regions after visiting the museum.
Even visitors who had some knowledge of that history, Sakiyama added, only came to grasp the full extent of the atrocities committed by Japanese militarists after visiting the museum.
"Japanese people know very little about their own country's history of aggression," Sakiyama said. "Unless we face the historical facts squarely, reflect on them deeply, and hold firm to the commitment never to repeat the mistakes of war, Japan will be unable to build genuine friendship and trust with other countries. In that case, the so-called 'peaceful homeland' will be nothing more than empty talk." ■
