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RR RUEHCN RUEHFK RUEHGH RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH
DE RUEHGH #0277/01 1770553
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 260553Z JUN 09
FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8072
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 2903
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 2081
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA 0010
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0538
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 2249
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA 0008
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA 0010
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE 0021
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO 0010
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 2072
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 1867
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0693
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 0484
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 8719

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SHANGHAI 000277 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE ALSO FOR EAP/PD, ECA 
NSC FOR LOI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CH JA PGOV PREL SCUL SOCI
SUBJECT: NANJING MASSACRE MEMORIAL HALL DIRECTOR SEEKS CHANNEL TO 
U.S. INSTITUTIONS 
 
REF: A) 07 SHANGHAI 804; B) SHANGHAI 258 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Non-Chinese, including some Japanese, 
accounted for about 10 percent of the 5.4 million visitors in 
2008 to Nanjing's memorial hall commemorating the Chinese 
victims of the city's occupation by Japanese forces in 1937. 
Zhu Chengshan, the director of the memorial, which contains 
surprisingly few references to the role of the Communist Party 
in the war against Japan, is interested in gaining greater 
international recognition of the memorial hall and would like 
contacts with similar institutions in the United States, notably 
Washington's Holocaust Museum.  Zhu also praised a recent 
Chinese film about the occupation of Nanjing for its complex 
emotional portrayal of both Chinese and Japanese characters. 
End summary. 
 
Visitors Number over Five Million per Year 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall (in full "The 
Memorial Hall for Victims of the Massacre in Nanjing by Japanese 
Military Forces Invading China") received over 5.4 million 
visitors in 2008, according to the Memorial Hall's Director Zhu 
Chengshan.  Meeting with Consulate General Shanghai's Deputy 
Principal Officer June 18, Zhu said over 80 percent of visitors 
were tourists.  About 10 percent (500,000) were from foreign 
countries, the largest numbers coming from Korea, Malaysia, and 
Singapore.  Visitors from Taiwan were also numerous, Zhu 
indicated, but did not provide any figures.  (Ref A describes a 
visit to this museum when China marked the seventieth 
anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.) 
 
Two Aims:  Remembering History, Promoting Peace 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The goal of the Memorial Hall, Zhu stressed, is 
twofold.  The first aim is remembrance:  to educate visitors 
about the history of the Japanese invasion of China as 
exemplified by events in Nanjing.  The second goal is to promote 
peace.  (Note:  Although most of the substantive displays 
present the details of the Japanese investiture of Nanjing, 
peace memorials and meditation areas form large portions of the 
Memorial Hall complex.  End note.)  Zhu, who has visited the 
Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, explained the Hall 
incorporates a number of display techniques borrowed from the 
Holocaust Museum, such as the integration of video displays, as 
well as other similar memorials such as from Israel's Yad Vashem 
shrine. 
 
Contact with U.S. Institutions Welcome 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) According to Zhu, the Memorial Hall receives a number 
of Japanese visitors, including former soldiers.  (Note:  All 
exhibits have signs in Chinese, English, and Japanese.  In 
addition, one of the peace monuments is festooned with strings 
of paper cranes apparently donated by schools or other 
institutions in Japan.  End note.)  The "Nanjing International 
Peace Research Institute," headed by Zhu, also has ties to 
Japanese institutions, notably the Kyoto International Peace 
Museum at Ritsumeikan University. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Thus far, the Memorial Hall has had no formal contact 
with either Washington's Holocaust Museum or with the USS 
Arizona Memorial in Hawaii, according to Zhu.  Nevertheless, Zhu 
was strongly interested in establishing relationships with those 
two particular U.S. institutions, as both have missions 
complementary to that of the Memorial Hall.   The main problem, 
he noted, was that the Memorial Hall lacks a channel to 
communicate with those U.S. institutions.  The Memorial Hall 
does have international links; in addition to the Japanese 
institutions noted above, it has been in contact with similar 
memorials in Poland (Auschwitz), Russia, and South Korea.  Zhu 
said the Memorial Hall would welcome temporary exhibitions from 
other museums, and in fact was currently hosting an exhibition 
 
SHANGHAI 00000277  002 OF 002 
 
 
on resistance to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. 
 
Recent Nanjing Films:  "Nanjing! Nanjing!" Works, "Rabe" Does Not 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Asked about two recent films on the Japanese 
occupation of Nanjing -- the Chinese film "Nanjing! Nanjing!" 
(English title "City of Life and Death") (ref B) and the German 
production "John Rabe" -- Zhu, who served on the review 
committee of the Chinese film, felt it had been the more 
successful work.  Both films contain historical and cultural 
inaccuracies, but the characters in "City of Life and Death" are 
more substantial than in the German film and challenged the 
traditional portrayal of Chinese purely as heroes and Japanese 
purely as villains.  Zhu acknowledged many Chinese had trouble 
accepting the sympathetic rendering in "City of Life and Death" 
of a young Japanese officer who frees two Chinese prisoners and 
then commits suicide rather than continue to participate in the 
brutality of the occupation.  "John Rabe" not only presented the 
Chinese characters as much too passive but also understates the 
role Americans played in establishing the International Security 
Zone to protect refugees while overemphasizing the contribution 
of Rabe and other Germans. 
 
Where's the Party? 
------------------ 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Comment:  Zhu impressed us as a thoughtful and serious 
scholar, and we were struck as much by what was not on display 
in the Memorial Hall as by what was.  Notably, the Memorial Hall 
has almost nothing on the role of the Communist Party in the 
struggle against Japan.  Only one small display, featuring a 
single photo of Mao Zedong with the American author Edgar Snow 
in Yan'an, notes the Party's contribution in the war against 
Japan.  (The importance of the United States in defeating Japan 
is also largely ignored, but Nationalist armies and officials 
are prominently featured.)  While the primary theme of the 
Memorial centers on China as a victim of Japanese aggression, we 
saw no content aimed at stirring up a desire for retribution or 
at demonizing contemporary Japan.  Zhu's obvious eagerness to 
establish contacts with similar memorial institutions in the 
United States indicates a desire for recognition of the Memorial 
Hall as a sincere effort to document a historical tragedy rather 
than as simply a piece of nationalist propaganda.  End comment. 
CAMP