New study fails to bridge Japan, China history divide

TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese and Chinese scholars published the results of a three-year joint study Sunday which showed they could not resolve differences on controversial modern events including the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
In a government-backed project aimed at soothing strained ties, 10 historians from each country have reviewed the history of China-Japan relations over 2,000 years.
The 549-page report showed both sides agreed that the 1937-1945 Sino-Japanese War was an "act of aggression" waged by Japan.
But it noted differing views on the number of Chinese killed by the imperial Japanese army after it seized Nanjing, then China's capital and known as Nanking.
The Chinese said more than 300,000 were massacred when Japanese troops embarked on an orgy of destruction, pillage, rape and murder.
The Japanese side pointed to "various estimates" such as 20,000 and 40,000 and up to 200,000.
The study was launched in 2006, when then prime minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Hu Jintao tried to mend ties that worsened under Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi whose visits to a Tokyo war shrine angered China.
The Japanese government has apologised for atrocities during its occupation of China without putting an estimate on the number of victims in Nanjing.
The report did not disclose the outcome of discussions on post-World War II history at the request of the Chinese side.
Japanese media attributed the exclusion to China's caution on sensitive events including the bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The study was led by Shinichi Kitaoka, a professor at the University of Tokyo, and Bu Ping, director of the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Kitaoka and Bu said last month that the report would wrap up the first phase of the joint study and they hoped to launch a "second phase" in the future.
Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told reporters on Friday that the study might expose "differences in views, especially in modern and contemporary history".
"But I think common understanding can gradually be nurtured through repeated meetings."