Spotlight: Major Japanese hotel chain sparks public anger over right-wing books, controversial remarks

Japan's leading APA Group business hotel chain has sparked public outrage recently as books carried in its hotel rooms deny Japan's history of aggression including the 1937 Nanking Massacre and the forced recruitment of "comfort women" before and during World War II.

Earlier this week, two APA hotel guests from New York uploaded a video message on the internet, showing the books placed in the hotel guest rooms and sold at the front desk as well. The online video soon went viral on social media sites and attracted tens of millions of views.

The books, with versions in Japanese and English, written by APA Chief Executive Toshio Motoya, are filled with right-wing, revisionist views, including but not limited to statements such as: "the Nanking Massacre was fabricated by the Chinese side and did not actually happen," "comfort women" were just common prostitutes, and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East is the winner's revenge to the loser.

"Comfort women" is a euphemism used to describe Asian women who were forced into sexual enslavement in Japanese military brothels during Japan's invasion of its Asian neighbors before and during the World War II.

In the books, the author also called for taking advantage of the Japan-U.S. alliance to take on China and to strive for the early accomplishment of revising Japan's postwar pacifist Constitution.

Inside a roughy 5-square-meter room of one of the APA chain's hotels in Shinjuku, one of the busiest and most vibrant commercial centers in Tokyo, Xinhua independently confirmed on Wednesday that two books were present on a shelf beside a dressing mirror.

Both were titled: "The Real History of Japan - Theoretical Modern History." One of them carrying the subtitle: "Proposal III to Proud Motherland & Revival of Japan," includes social commentaries written by Seishi Fuji, the penname of Toshio Motoya, between 2014-2015. The other book, with the subtitle: "Proposal IV to Proud Motherland & Revival of Japan," includes his social commentaries written during 2015-2016.

No publishing house could be found in the bilingual books, while "800 yen" (around 7 U.S. dollars) was printed on the covers of the English version indicating the price. A note stuck on the book read "available for sale at front desk."

A hotel clerk at the front desk told Xinhua that some guests in the hotel had purchased the books on the day.

Despite international protest, the APA Group refused to remove the books from its hotel rooms. The group on Tuesday issued a statement on its website saying that "we have no intention to withdraw this book from our guest rooms, no matter how many denouncements may be made about it from whatever viewpoint."

Furthermore, the group deliberately enclosed the contents of "Nanking Massacre" on page 6 of the book in the statement.

In response to the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Tuesday told a daily press conference that it is discouraging that despite the international community acknowledging the serious crimes against humanity committed by Japan during World War II, there are still forces in Japan attempting to deny or distort the truth.

"The truth of what happened will not be changed by passing of time nor will the facts disappear because of deliberate ignorance," Hua said.

She urged the Japanese government to face up and reflect on the country's past aggressions, ensure its population are exposed to a true telling of history, and for it to regain trust from its Asian neighbors and the international community through concrete action.

Meanwhile, Chinese historian Zhang Jianjun, chief researcher with the Nanjing Massacre research institute, said the book is a fabrication based on the rhetoric of the Japanese right-wing.

Nanjing was home to more than 600,000 people before the slaughter of around 300,000 soldiers and civilians in December 1937, but the book claims that there were only 200,000 people in the city at the time.

In addition, the book said there were no eyewitness accounts of the massacre by either Chinese or Japanese observers, despite the existence of a plethora of diaries, letters and photographs.

"It is nonsense," said Zhang, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

More than 20 people from Europe and the United States recorded the atrocities and their documents have been preserved by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Register, Zhang said.

"The book portrays Japan as the victim of the war. The attempt to whitewash its role as the invader confuses right and wrong," Zhang said.

In interviews conducted by Xinhua in Tokyo, many tourists from around the world criticized the behavior of the hotel and said they will not choose to stay there when they travel.

"What I know about the massacre of Nanjing is that everybody seems to know that it happened. It was an appalling historical event and it was about Japanese imperialism at that time," an Australian visitor to Japan told Xinhua, requesting anonymity.

"Terrible things happened and the Japanese were 'crazy' at that time. They have to accept that it happened. Once you accept it happened, you can move on... hopefully, it won't happen again," the Australian said.

Another tourist, Nicole, told Xinhua that, "I wouldn't stay at that hotel if it's deliberately carrying literature trying to distort history."

Her partner James added, "I agree. I couldn't stand something like that. It's utterly horrible."

Chinese tourists are also strongly enraged at APA's behavior and have started boycotting the hotel.

"I think the behavior of the hotel is immoral, because history can't be denied. The Nanjing Massacre was a gross injustice inflicted by the Imperial Japanese Army and we must treat this fact fairly and objectively. We can't deny this part of history," a Chinese tourist, Xu Juxin, told Xinhua.

"I won't stay in such a hotel and we should all fight against it. I'll share this option with my family and friends," said Xu.

"I think we should report the behavior of this hotel to the Chinese media and let more people know... we should boycott this hotel. We should ignore this hotel completely and not accept their ideas," said another Chinese tourist Yang Jieya.

Major Chinese travel sites, including Ctrip and eLong, have started to boycott the Tokyo-based hotel chain. Searches for the APA hotels on these sites yielded no results, as of Thursday evening.

On Thursday, the organizer of the Olympic Council of Asia's 8th Asian Winter Games (AWG) in Sapporo told Xinhua that it has requested the APA hotel to remove the books in its rooms, but the hotel made no replies so far.

The 8th AWG will be held in Sapporo and Obihiro during Feb.19-26. To save cost, the 2017 Sapporo AWG has not built athletes village, but chose two local hotels as official designated reception hotel for athletes. APA Hotel&Resort Sapporo is one of the two hotels.

According to accommodation arrangement, athelets from Chinese and South Korean delegation will be accommodated in the hotel, Toshima Kouji, a staff working in the media section of the organizing committee of the 2017 Sapporo AWG, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

The organizing committee has requested APA to "remove the rightist-wing books placed in the hotel guest rooms." however, "APA has made no replies yet," said Toshima Kouji.

The organizing committee has not yet decided what to do next if APA refuses to remove the books. But there is no plans to replace the designated reception hotel, he said, adding that the organizing committee temporarily does not consider communicating with the Chinese side over the issue.

Xinhua correspondent called the APA hotel in Sapporo, but the hotel staff answering the phone denied knowledge of the issue, and refused to reply in details.

The APA hotels belong to Japan APA Group Corporation, which was founded in 1971. So far, it has 413 branches and about 66,950 guest rooms all over the world. With convenient locations and low prices, the hotel chain is not only popular with locals, but also attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world, including China and South Korea.

The CEO of APA Group, Toshio Motoya is a long-time rightist. His titles include deputy director of a support group for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and director general of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper's reader's club. Endit