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Officials are planning to change plans so Chinese athletes will not stay at the APA hotel in Sapporo because each room is provided with a copy of a book denying the 1937 Nanking Massacre. Photo: Kyodo

China’s Asian Winter Games athletes unlikely to stay at hotel linked to Nanking Massacre book

Copies of book denying 1937 Nanking Massacre are placed in guestrooms at APA Hotel in Sapporo, which is hosting participants in February sports event

The organising committee of the forthcoming Asian Winter Games in Japan is arranging to change accommodation for Chinese athletes from the APA Hotel in Sapporo, where copies of a controversial book denying the 1937 Nanking Massacre are placed in guestrooms, a committee source said on Tuesday.

Following a furore in China over the book’s placement in APA hotel guestrooms, the Olympic Council of Asia, the apex sporting body that governs sports events in Asia, and the Chinese Olympic Committee have both requested that Chinese athletes not be accommodated at the hotel during the sports event.

The athletes can stay at the Sapporo Prince Hotel, the other hotel within the city designated for athletes’ accommodation, or other hotels outside the area, according to the organising committee.

The book denying the 1937 Nanking Massacre has been written in Japanese and English and placed in rooms at the APA Hotel in Sapporo. Photo: Kyodo
The 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games, featuring participants from 31 countries and regions, will start in February in Hokkaido. The APA Hotel in Sapporo was going to host the largest number of athletes.

The controversial book is a compilation of essays written by Toshio Motoya, head of the hotel chain operator, APA Group.

APA Group chief executive Toshio Motoya, who wrote the controversial book. Photo: Reuters
The book, written in Japanese and English and placed in every guest room at APA group hotels, asserts that the Nanking Massacre, which China has said resulted in the deaths of more than 300,000 people in the city of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, was fabricated.

The APA hotel chain had told the organising committee that it intended to remove information materials, including the book, from the guest rooms at the Sapporo hotel.

Japanese historians have estimated the number of deaths to range from the tens of thousands to 200,000.

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