Seeking evidence: The 1984 visit to Nanjing by a Japanese investigative team and its significance

ABSTRACT

In December 1984, a private Japanese academic organization, the “Nanjing Incident Research Committee” (Nankin Jiken Chōsa Kenkyūkai), sent a survey team to visit Nanjing, with the aim of obtaining more evidence on the Nanjing Massacre to counter the internal debate within Japan. Through the coordination by the “Office of the Leading Team on History, Museums and Monuments for the Nanjing Massacre” during the visit, the survey team was able not only to gather historical materials, meet with survivors, and tour historical sites, but also to engage in exchanges with Nanjing researchers and students of Nanjing University. This visit to Nanjing further publicized Japan’s internal debate on the Nanjing Massacre in China, while also representing an unprecedented effort for collaboration between China and Japan in research on the Nanjing Massacre.