Nanking Massacre textbooks rolled out in Jiangsu primary schools
Gruesome details are edited out, but schoolchildren will be taught the history through 10 narratives
Grade Five students in Jiangsu province became the first on the mainland to receive official textbooks detailing the Nanking Massacre – a painful chapter of history that has been a sticking point between China and Japan.
The 55-page textbook comprises 10 stories about the Japanese military's invasion of the former Chinese capital, which today uses the post-war pinyin spelling Nanjing, on December 13, 1937, marking the start of a six-week spree of destruction, rape and killings.
China says about 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were killed during that period. Some foreign academics put the death count lower, including China historian Jonathan Spence, who estimates that 42,000 soldiers and citizens were killed and 20,000 women raped, many of whom later died.
While the subject has been taught in schools before, this is the first time authorities have released a textbook specially dedicated to the incident.
I’m inspired by Auschwitz [in Poland] and Israel. Their pupils above Grade Three all have textbooks about massacres ... Our country is far behind in such public education
But for the children, photos and language deemed too gruesome were taken out, according to Zhu Chengshan, curator of the memorial museum.