Japan Threatens to Cut off UNESCO Funding
A UNESCO panel meeting in Abu Dhabi recently approved a proposal from China to add controversial documents concerning the Nanjing Massacre to the Memory of the World Register, an international initiative that safeguards documents that are vital to world history. Japanese officials are protesting UNESCO’s decision due to concerns that China may be overstating the number of Chinese lives lost in the 1937 invasion of Nanjing. Though still considering its options, Tokyo has threatened to cut off its funding of UNESCO unless the adoption of the disputed documents is prevented.
The documents in question provide videos, images, and journals that describe the killing and rape of Chinese civilians by invading Japanese forces during the Nanjing Massacre. The controversy primarily stems from the fact that Chinese records place the death toll at around 300,000, a figure that Japanese historians have heavily contested. Many historical analysts have concluded that the Chinese death toll more likely ranged from the tens of thousands to 200,000, reflecting significant uncertainty in the calculations.
Though the Japanese are not denying that their troops killed civilians and committed war crimes, Japanese newspapers assert that they are taking a stand against the “falsification of history.”
Cutting the funding of UNESCO will certainly be a blow to the U.N. agency given that Japan has long been one of its major supporters, supply 11 percent of its funding and contributing $31 million in 2014 to UNESCO’s restoration and preservation work.
Chinese officials have disparaged Japan’s threats to defund UNESCO over the Nanjing document decision. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying criticized Tokyo’s threats by stating, “What the Japanese side has said and done once again revealed its reluctance to face history squarely, which is wrong.”
Japan is concerned that the adoption of the Chinese documents could quickly escalate into a larger political problem. Officials in Tokyo are questioning UNESCO’s neutrality and see the decision as a direct result of China using its growing international presence to promote its political agenda. This debate may become a setback for China-Japan relations which have been improving as of late, following issues of rising military and security assertiveness and territorial conflicts.