Nanjing Massacre victim triumphs for justice

BEIJING,April 20-- Justice has
prevailed.

Eighty-year old Xia Shuqin was finally awarded
damageslast week for the libel she suffered when her identity as a witness
to the Nanjing Massacre was questioned.

It is nine years since she first lodged a lawsuit at
a Nanjing local court against Higashinakano Osamu and Magsumura Goshio, as well
as publisher Tendensha, for a book that questioned whether Xia witnessed the
mass killing by Japanese aggressors in Nanjing in 1937.

Seven of Xia's nine family members were killed by the
Japanese invaders. Xia, just eight years old at the time, survived, despite
three bayonet wounds, along with her four-year-old sister.

However, Tendensha published a book by Higashinakano
Osamu and Magsumura Goshio that questioned the identity of Xia as the girl in
the documentary filmed by John G. Magee, a U.S. missionary and then chairman of
the International Commission of Nanking Red Cross.

The book denied the atrocities committed by Japanese
soldiers and captured by the documentary film.

It is quite sad that the remaining survivors who have
filed lawsuits seeking compensation for both physical and psychological damages
they suffered in the massacre are yet to see justice delivered.

In the past more than six decades since the Japanese
surrender in 1945, some right-wing Japanese have tried their best to whitewash
the war crimes committed during their country's invasion of Southeast Asian
countries and even denied the war was an invasion.

That is certainly the last thing people who suffered
will ever accept.

Chinese people don't choose to harbor resentment
towards their Japanese neighbor because of the war.

But they want people of both countries to always
remember the tragedy as a guide to the future.

A true reckoning, it is thought, will prevent a
similar war from repeating itself.

For Xia Shuqin and other survivors, it is not
important whether they receive compensation or not.

They took legal action against right-wing Japanese
because they could not allow the truth, which they witnessed first hand, to be
turned upside down.

What they want is due respect from the Japanese, who
should acknowledge the miseries of that particular period of history.

The Chinese government gave up its quest for war
reparations from Japan in 1972 when the two countries forged diplomatic
relations.

That move owed to the importance we place on the
long-term friendship between the two neighbors. But this priority does not mean
we do not care about any attempt to whitewash war crimes.

The amendment of bilateral relations by leaders in
the past couple of years was welcomed by both Chinese and Japanese people, who
understand that long-term friendship is in the interests of both sides.

The right ruling of this case by the Japanese Supreme
Court will increase our respect for our neighbor, and certainly contribute to
bilateral relations.

(Source: China Daily)

Nanjing Massacre witness libel suit
compensation paid out in Japan

NANJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Libel damages have been
paid to the lawyers of Chinese Nanjing Massacre survivor who won a lawsuit in
Japan, she said on Friday.

Xia Shuqin, aged 80, said her Japanese lawyers told
her that the compensation of 4.55 million yen (about 44,500 U.S. dollars) was in
their account, and will be transferred to her soon, but they did not say
when. Full story