Do you believe the Japanese will try to deny the events depicted in the soon to be released Nanking film?

They've been denying it since it happened. Why should they stop now? There is an unofficial policy in Japan about pretending that WWII never occured at all... All except the atomic bomb strike. Then they go on about how poor and abused they were and how nasty and mean the US. was for doing it. Forget Bataan. Forget Iwo Jima (renamed this month to Iwoto to make the forgetting easier). Forget the systematic brutalization of the "comfort women". Some of my students actually think that the Hiroshima attack STARTED WWII. These are Junior High School students by the way. So many people forget that Japan had been raping and pilaging their merry way through China and Korea for nearly 20 years before the U.S. got involved after Pearl Harbor. They even made the Koreans stop speaking their own language! But most Japanese youth never hear a word about it, unless they happen to see an American movie or documentary on the subject. Then they can just write THAT off as "Oh... its just an American movie. Surely Japan wasn't THAT bad!"

Even though an accuate account might be recorded in the official text books, many teachers have a habit of spending two weeks on Hiroshima complete with school trip to the site and only a couple of days on the rest of the war and the events leading up to it. In a curricular sense they are supposed to learn an accurate account, but in a practical sense they very rarely do.

EDIT: I just read David M's excellent answer. As a result, I defer to his far superior knowledge of what Japanese kids are really taught about their country's involvement in WW2, China and Korea, regardless of what their textbooks say. On that basis, there doesn't appear to be much reason for optimism about Japan's acceptance and endorsement of the forthcoming movie.

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You ask us to engage in a double speculation: -

[1] Will the new movie provide an accurate and unbiased report of the Nanking massacre? (We won’t know until we see it.)

[2] How will the Japanese react if the movie does indeed tell the truth about the massacre?

The fact that the new movie claims to be a ‘documentary’ doesn’t guarantee that it will indeed present an unbiased and balanced version of the terrible events in Nanking. To understand my point, consider the diametrically opposed opinions on the truthfulness of other documentaries, such as “An Inconvenient Truth” or any Michael Moore movie. I am hoping, of course, that the Nanking movie sticks to facts that the vast majority of people would accept as facts. But just calling it a ‘documentary’ doesn’t guarantee that.

If the movie reaches too far beyond a solid factual base, I don’t think anyone should blame the Japanese for denying its accuracy.

But let’s assume that the new movie sticks to solid facts. If it does, I believe there’s a good chance that most Japanese will accept it.

Although there are still ardent nationalist groups in Japanese politics and society, they are no longer a majority. The WW2 generation is now mostly gone. Younger Japanese learn about the history of their country in China and in WW2 from textbooks, not from neo-imperialist propaganda.

Most of the textbooks actually used in Japanese schools no longer deny or diminish the scale and blame for the Nanking massacre and other atrocities. That fills me with hope.

A notable (and oft-quoted) exception is the “New History Textbook”, which manages to downplay the Nanking massacre with this script:

“… many Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded by Japanese troops (the Nanking Incident). Documentary evidence has raised doubts about the actual number of victims claimed by the incident. The debate continues even today"

But the New History Textbook was being used in only 16 Japanese high schools as of September 2004, so its version of events is being learned by less than 0.04% of Japanese students.

Other, less evasive, textbooks are much more commonly used as tuition material in Japanese schools. A typical example is the “Junior high school history textbook”. This what it tells about the Nanking massacre:

“The Japanese army … invaded Nanjing, and killed and destroyed the lives of many Chinese people. The Japanese army that occupied Nanjing killed many Chinese people inside and outside the urban district within several weeks. The number of deaths was around 7-80,000 counting only civilians such as women and children. Including the deserted soldiers the number is estimated to be over 200,000. China estimates the number of the victims to be well over 300,000 including war deaths. Japan was condemned by other nations for this incident known as Nanjing Massacre; however, the Japanese people then were not notified of the fact."

They can try, but that's a bit like Germany trying to deny the Holocaust. There is ample evidence of the rape of Nanking, as it is often called. Like the Germans, the Japanese were very methodical in keeping records of what they were doing. Even if they hadn't kept records, the fact still stands that there is plenty of evidence supporting that particular campaign of terror and abuse. I understand that it is very important for the Japanese people to not lose face, and I am sure they are greatly ashamed of what happened, but they won't be able to really move on until they admit what they did. I don't think, in light of WWII, that people are much interested in apologists and their excuses. Japan will eventually have to face it head on. It may not be when the movie is released, but it will have to happen sooner or later. They want to be a world power, but to do that, they have to come clean with some of their less-pleasant history.

I don't see any change happening with the current generation of Japanese leaders. It's a little like what's happening in Russia. The Japanese want more than anything to see strength in their leaders now, and anyone who dares to apologize will be seen as weak and will lose support. They will continue to deny the events, blame American and Russian aggression, talk about how much the Japanese people suffered, call the stories exagerations, or just ignore them. We'll need to wait for a younger crowd to take power before there's any acknowledgement of responsibility.

Yes, they will "officially" deny the facts in the film. They're even trying to re-write WWII to see themselves as the victims rather than the aggressors. Few of the politicians and leaders of modern Japan have ever expressed any culpability for the atrocities they committed against the Chinese, Koreans and the South Sea Islanders. And the faster WWII vets die the faster they will spin doctor their horrific actions.

Who cares what the Japs think???

By the way did you know the Enola Gay has been restored?

http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/garber/enola/enola.h...