Lost in translation: British journalist 'shocked' Japanese book he dictated denies Nanking Massacre
Henry Scott-Stokes 'horrified' Japanese book he dictated dismisses war crime as propaganda
A veteran British journalist says he has been misrepresented by the translator of his best-selling book that looks at Japan’s history from an outsider’s point of view, and has disavowed the book’s claim that the Nanking Massacre never occurred.
Henry Scott-Stokes’ Falsehoods of the Allied Nations’ Victorious View of World History, as seen by a British Journalist, has become a bestseller since it was released in December. Conservatives and nationalists have held it up as evidence that Japan has been the target of unfair international criticism for its colonial past.
But Scott-Stokes claims his Japanese translator twisted his words.
I realised I felt that Mr Stokes was having his words taken out of context
Most controversially, the Japanese-language book concludes that the Chinese government made up the Nanking Massacre for its own political purposes.
Scott-Stokes could not be contacted by the South China Morning Post, but in an interview with Kyodo News he said that he was “shocked and horrified” to discover his book dismisses one of the most notorious events of the second world war as propaganda.
Scott-Stokes insists that while he believes China has exaggerated the figure of 300,000 victims of the Imperial Japanese Army in the city now known as Nanjing, a blanket denial that the atrocity occurred is “straight forward right-wing propaganda” put forward by Japanese revisionists.
He added that claiming nothing happened in Nanking in December 1937 and January 1938 was ludicrous and fatuous.
Now 75, Scott-Stokes suffers from worsening Parkinson’s disease that makes it difficult for him to type or write. He was also unable to read all of the Japanese-language version of the book.