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Massacre victim sues Japanese writers
By Bao Xinyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-18 00:18
A Chinese survivor of the Nanjing Massacre lodged a lawsuit at Xuanwu
District People's Court, in which she claimed that she was defamed by two
right-wing Japanese writers.
It is the first time a Chinese victim of the massacre has taken a number of
Japanese people to a Chinese court. The preliminary hearing began on Wednesday.
Xia Shuqin, the 75-year-old plaintiff and her two lawyers took part in the
evidence exchange.
The defendants, Toshio Matsumura and Higaxinakano Naosumichi and the Japanese
Teiunsya Corporation Limited, the book's publisher, did not attend the initial
hearing nor did they hand in any evidence.
According to Guo Qiang, chief justice of the court, evidence exchange is
between the plaintiffs and defendants.
The court served a summons to the plaintiff this June, and another to the
defendants in April.
"The defendants did not attend the court, therefore giving up their right of
evidence exchange," said Guo.
Xia was only eight years old when the Nanjing Massacre took place in December
1937, when as many as 300,000 Chinese were killed and many more abused by
Japanese troops when they overran the city of Nanjing, then the capital.
Seven of Xia's family members were killed by Japanese soldiers on December
13, 1937.
"A Japanese soldier stabbed me in my left shoulder, left waist and back with
his bayonet, I passed out because of the severe pain," Xia said.
When she regained consciousness, she found that only she and her
four-year-old sister survived. They hid in the room full of dead bodies for 14
days, eating leftovers and drinking unboiled water. Later, they were sent to an
old people's home by an old woman.
Their experiences were recorded in John Magee's film and the wartime diaries
of John Rabe.
In 1998, the Japanese Teiunsya Corporation Limited published the books "Big
Doubts about the Nanjing Massacre" and "Thorough Verification of the Nanjing
Massacre."
The two books were compiled by Toshio Matsumura and Higxinakano Naosumichi
respectively.
Matsumura wrote in his book that Xia was a false witness. "Xia Shuqin is not
the eight-year-old girl in the massacre," he wrote.
Naosumichi raised similar doubts in his book. For example, "Why were only the
two girls not killed?" And "The girl was seriously stabbed with a bayonet, how
could she survive for 14 days?"
When hearing about these doubts through the media, Xia felt deeply hurt. She
decided to take legal action and submitted to Nanjing Intermediate People's
Court in November, 2000.
She raised five requests in the lawsuit -- the defendants should stop their
defaming behaviour at once; the defendants should restore her reputation, the
defendants should apologize to her in the major newspapers of both Japan and
China; the defendants should each pay compensation of 800,000 yuan (US$ 96,386);
and the defendants should pay for the lawsuit.
The formal trial will be held on on November 22 and 23.
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