As China marks 80 years since war with Japan, can time heal historical wounds?

Some ask if war film set during Nanjing massacre amounts to 'hatred education'

- Lim Min Zhang China Correspondent and Walter Sim Japan Correspondent

BEIJING/TOKYO - Since it hit the big screen on July 25, Chinese war film Dead To Rights has been a hit with the masses, topping the summer box office by bringing in more than 2.4 billion yuan (S$430 million) in revenue.

Public servant Macker Shi is one of many Chinese who have seen the film, set during the period of the Nanjing massacre, about a group of ordinary Chinese people seeking to survive while protecting photographic evidence of Japanese brutality.

The event in the then capital of China that began on Dec 13, 1937, and did not end until January 1938 saw an estimated 200,000 Chinese killed by the invading Japanese army. It remains an emotionally fraught topic for many Chinese people today, driven by a perception that Japan has not sincerely apologised for its past militarism.

Japan occupied parts of China between 1932 and 1945, including by establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo in the north-east. Japanese war atrocities, such as executions, torture, forced labour and sexual violence, were widespread during this period.

The Chinese government has, for decades, kept memories of the war vivid through efforts like school lessons, popular films, museum exhibitions and commemorative events, including ceremonies held annually on Sept 18 to mark the Mukden Incident of 1931, a false-flag event staged by the Japanese military to invade Manchuria.

Dead To Rights sparked discussion on Chinese social media, with some asking whether such heavy topics are suitable for children. Others asked if it amounted to "hatred education" by teaching the young to be anti-Japanese.

But Mr Shi, 47, who took his 15-year-old daughter to watch the movie on Aug 15—the date Japan surrendered in 1945—believes the next generation must be exposed to such "historical truths".

"To forget history is to betray the nation," he told The Straits Times.