- Title: Japan hotel APA will not pull controversial book from rooms before Olympics
- Date: 2nd June 2017
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JUNE 2, 2017) (REUTERS) MEIJI KINENKAN MEMORIAL HALL BUILDING A JAPANESE FLAG OVER THE MEIJI KINENKAN APA HOTEL STAFF STANDING NEAR A BOOK STAND A NEW BOOK BY APA HOTEL OWNER, TOSHIO MOTOYA, ON SALE A BOOK THAT DENIES THE NANJING MASSACRE HAPPENED AUTHORED BY MOTOYA ON SALE NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) APA HOTEL OWNER AND AUTHOR OF CONTROVERSIAL BOOKS, TOSHIO MOTOYA, SAYING: "We didn't remove the books in Sapporo, so I don't want there to be a misunderstanding about that. Would I remove the books during the Olympics just because they're the Tokyo Olympics? That's really stupid. Is there something strange about putting my books in my hotels? From the start, I have no intention for removing them for that reason." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 16th June 2017 09:14
- Keywords: Denial Books Nanjing Massacre APA hotels China Japan
- Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
- City: TOKYO, JAPAN
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Race Relations / Ethnic Issues,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA0016JL3VPH
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Japanese hotel group APA will not remove books that deny the Nanjing Massacre from their rooms before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Toshi Motoya, who owns the hotel chain and authored the controversial books, said at a book publishing event in Tokyo on Friday (June 2).
Earlier this year, a furor erupted over the books, which air his revisionist views and are placed in every room of APA group's more than 400 hotels. Motoya, using the pen name Seiji Fuji, wrote that stories of the Nanjing Massacre were "Impossible." China responded by urging all tour operators to sever ties with APA and called on Chinese tourists to resist their approach.
Japan's wartime occupation of Nanjing, and the resulting massacre is a highly contentious issue between the uneasy neighbors. China says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in the city. A post-war Allied tribunal put the death toll at about half of that.
To the fury of China, some conservative Japanese politicians and academics continue to deny the massacre ever happened, or attempt to discredit its historical significance by lowering the death toll. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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