bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
        published
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
        published
      }
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        relatedNewsletters {
          ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
          id
        }
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
  ... on Video {
    youtubeId
  }
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on SectionUnion {
  __isSectionUnion: __typename
  ... on Section {
    name
  }
  ... on VideoSection {
    name
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


types

sectionsV2

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

Julian Ryall

Conservatives in Japan are urging the government to take action against a museum in Toronto run by a Chinese-Canadian organisation, accusing it of distorting history and harming the country’s international reputation.
They say the Asia-Pacific Peace Museum, which opened in June 2024, presents a solely Chinese perspective on events such as the massacre at Nanking, now known as the city of Nanjing, the wartime use of “comfort women”, and the activities of Unit 731, a covert Japanese military unit that conducted human experimentation in China, while ignoring historical evidence and explanations from the Japanese side.
Masahisa Sato, a lawmaker with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has twice raised the issue in Japan’s upper house of parliament, warning in April that “if historical issues are not addressed seriously, then it will be extremely difficult to change perceptions”.
“The Japanese population in Canada is significantly smaller than the Chinese population,” he said. “If we do not take historical issues seriously, then Japanese people will lose their standing.”
Apparently dissatisfied with the government’s failure to act, Sato brought the matter up again on May 27, calling on Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya to register a formal protest with his Canadian counterpart, Anita Anand.
“We have confirmed cases where the exhibits were made with extreme language and expressions that are far removed from the historical facts,” Iwaya replied. Japan would make representations “at the most appropriate level and timing”, he added.

His response, however, provoked an angry response from Sato, who accused the minister of doing nothing to prevent the erosion of Japan’s “credibility and national dignity”.
“We speak up to South Korea, but we go silent when it comes to [propaganda from] China,” the Sankei newspaper quoted Sato as saying last month. “That double standard undermines our standing. If the foreign minister cannot speak up to defend Japan’s reputation, who will?”
The museum was set up by Alpha Education, which describes itself on the museum’s website as a non-profit registered charity “that promotes a critical-historical inquiry of World War II in Asia that contributes to peace and reconciliation”.
It says it aims to do so through “engaging students and educators, empowering youth, supporting research and connecting with communities”.
The ground floor of the museum has a series of permanent exhibits on the rise of militarism and colonialism in Japan. The sections in this area cover topics including massacres, the Japanese military’s sexual slavery system, biological and chemical warfare, prisoners of war and forced civilian labourers. An upper floor area in the museum is dedicated to “justice” and “memory” of victims during the era.
One example cited by the Sankei as misrepresentative is a wartime photograph of a Japanese soldier carrying baggage after the fall of Nanjing, labelled in the exhibit as “looting”. The photographer who was at the scene reportedly said in a 1985 interview that the caption of the original photograph was inaccurate.
Hiromichi Moteki, the acting secretary general of the Tokyo-based Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, said the Japanese embassy in Canada should first fully document the exhibition and detail its claims with the government in Tokyo.

“If there are errors that are part of the exhibition, then the government has a duty to point out those errors and request that they be corrected,” he told This Week in Asia. “If there are claims that are false that are being told to children in Canada about Japan, then Japan has the right to point that out and request that corrections be made.”
“Failing to do that will make lies into the truth,” he added.
Moteki’s organisation holds a very different position on the events of the early decades of the last century. The society claims that there was no massacre in Nanjing in 1937, that “comfort women” were willing prostitutes who became wealthy by working in front-line brothels for the Japanese military, and that Unit 731 was merely charged with providing safe drinking water to troops in China.
The society also claims that Japan treated prisoners of war humanely and never committed war crimes.
In contrast, the society says the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should have been treated as war crimes and that the post-war Tokyo war crimes trials were merely “victors’ justice”.
Stephen Nagy, a Canadian professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University, said the museum was almost certainly funded in part by the Chinese government.
“It is very probably influenced through the local Chinese consulate either directly or indirectly through the United Front Work Department, which has been increasingly busy building relations with Chinese communities around the world ahead of the 80th anniversary later this year of Japan’s defeat in World War II,” he said, referring to the arm of the Communist Party of China.

“China is trying to craft a new narrative that it was instrumental in defeating both Japanese fascism and global fascism, and they are being very successful in getting that message out,” he said.
While Canada had long been home to a large number of Chinese from Taiwan and Hong Kong, there was a growing number of mainland Chinese who were choosing to settle there, Nagy said. This group of people had grown up listening to Chinese propaganda about the years of Japanese occupation and war and had a “strong prejudice” against Japan, he added.
According to Nagy, there is no question that Japanese troops committed atrocities in China and elsewhere across Asia during the early decades of the last century, but the divergent versions of history presented by China and Japan mean there is little chance for meaningful debate or future reconciliation.
The Canadian government would not be able to shut the museum down as it was run by a private organisation, Nagy said.
Moteki said he was angry with successive post-war Japanese governments for their failure to convince the world of the country’s version of its wartime history.
“No Japanese government since the war has really stood up for the nation, and all they have done is apologise,” he said.


Outcry in Japan over Chinese bias at Canadian history museum: ‘lies into truth’

Japanese troops in Nanking, now known as Nanjing, after conquering the city in 1937. Photo: Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Joseph Wong, founder of the Asia Pacific Peace Museum, stands outside the property in Toronto. Photo: Asia Pacific Peace Museum

A former South Korean “comfort woman” stands at the Seoul Comfort Women Memorial in Seoul. Photo: Reuters

One of Japan’s germ warfare facilities used by its Unit 731 during WWII in Harbin, China. Photo: Xinhua

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With exhibits on Unit 731 and wartime atrocities, critics in Tokyo warn the museum is eroding Japan’s ‘credibility and national dignity’


With exhibits on Unit 731 and wartime atrocities, critics in Tokyo warn the museum is eroding Japan’s ‘credibility and national dignity’.


Outcry in Japan over Chinese bias at Canadian history museum: ‘lies into truth’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With exhibits on Unit 731 and wartime atrocities, critics in Tokyo warn the museum is eroding Japan’s ‘credibility and national dignity’

With exhibits on Unit 731 and wartime atrocities, critics in Tokyo warn the museum is eroding Japan’s ‘credibility and national dignity’