Japan, which erases the ‘Nanjing Massacre’, and Korea, which erases the ‘Vietnam War massacre’ [Why]

Recently, the controversy surrounding the renovation of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum in Japan sparked debate. As part of a major overhaul that took place about 30 years later, the museum decided to change the term "Nanjing Massacre" to "Nanjing Incident." The Nagasaki City explained that they were following the official stance of the Japanese government and textbooks.

However, concerns were raised internationally about the museum's approach to war crimes and the attribution of responsibility. The criticism was that the Japanese military's actions and their complicity could be minimized. The controversy spread to the international community, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly expressing its concerns in a formal briefing on June 5th, and the British newspaper The Times also giving the issue significant coverage.

This debate has been ongoing in Japan, with a notable example being the Osaka International Peace Center (Peace Osaka). Opened in 1991, this museum not only covered Japan's war damage but also its invasions and aggressions in Asia. Topics such as Nanjing Massacre, colonial rule, and the conscription of labor were all addressed in the museum's exhibits.

However, the museum faced criticism from conservative forces as "self-styled scholars," resulting in the entire exhibition presenting the history of aggression committed by Japan as if it had vanished. The erasure of the history of aggression is not just an issue for Japan; the Seoul War Memorial Park's Vietnam War exhibit, after the 2018 "Abroad Deployment" remodel, downplayed the deployment of Korean troops in Vietnam and highlighted the idea of "world peace" as the purpose of the deployment.

The exhibit prominently displays General Chun Myung-in's words, "As long as a single Korean civilian is not protected, even if a hundred Viet Cong soldiers are lost," and blatantly denies civilian casualties. This exhibition directly contradicts the growing social trend in South Korea since 2000 to acknowledge civilian casualties in the Vietnam War.