勿忘國恥:南京大屠殺全史

ONE week ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre, the atrocities were fully exposed in a new book published last Thursday, offering new perspectives and more rationality.

南京大屠殺75週年的一個星期之前，那場暴行被完全暴露在上週四出版的一本新書上，該書提供了新的視角和更多理性。

"The most significant feature of the 'Complete history of the Nanking Massacre' lies in its rationality," said Zhang Xianwen, professor of Nanjing University and chief editor of the book. Editions in English and Japanese are to be released over the next two years; publication in other languages are planned.

“《南京大屠殺全史》最明顯的特徵在於其理性，”張憲文說，南京大學教授和該書主編。英語和日語版本將在未來兩年內出版；其他語言的版本在計劃內。

The book, published by Nanjing University Press, describes the massacre across three volumes, considered to be the most complete work on the event. Most of the book's content comes from historical documents published from 2005 to 2010. "Efforts to discover the truth have arrived in a new era with the publishing of the book," said Sun Zhaiwei, another of the book's writers and a researcher at the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

這本書，由南京大學出版社出版，描述了三卷的大屠殺，被認爲是關於該事件最完整的作品。書的大部分內容來自從2005年到2010年發佈的歷史文獻。“隨着該書的出版，努力發現真理已經進入新時代，”孫翟偉說，該書另一位作家和江蘇省社會科學院的研究員。

Japanese troops launched a six-week-long massacre in Nanjing, capital of China at that time, starting December 13, 1937 when they conquered the city.

日本軍隊在中國當時的首都南京發起了一場長達六週的大屠殺，從他們佔領了這座城市的1937年12月13日開始。

Books and papers on the massacre published in the 1980s focused to fight against the denial claims from the Japanese right-wing scholars, said Zhang Lianhong, deputy chief editor of the book and a history professor at Nanjing Normal University. Divergence of opinion emerged in some issues, he said, citing differing accounts of the number of victims as an example.

20世紀80年代發表的書籍和論文集中於反對日本右翼學者對否認歷史，張連紅說，該書副主編和南京師範大學歷史教授。對一些問題的看法出現分歧，他說，引用遇難者人數的不同記錄作爲例子。

Zhang Lianhong said scholars believed the number was no less than 300,000. They did not give a specific death toll in the book, but provided evidence of the number of victims in multiple chapters. "We only offered evidence. We would like to let the readers think about it themselves," he said.

張連紅說學者認爲這個數字不少於30萬。他們沒有在這本書裏給出具體的死亡人數，但在多個章節提供了遇難者數量的證據。“我們只提供證據。我們想讓讀者自己思考這件事，”他說。

"The precise number of victims is not the most important thing. What really matters is that the Nanking Massacre was a violent invasion on a large scale. A staggering number of civilians and prisoners of war were killed," he said.

“受害者的準確數字並不是最重要的事情。真正重要的是南京大屠殺是一次大規模的暴力入侵。數量驚人的平民和戰俘被殺，”他說。

Zhang said objective research not only received the approbation from international scholars but also changed the attitude of Chinese people. "People started to discuss the issues with a rational attitude based the historical evidence instead of angry quarrels," he said.

張說客觀研究不僅得到了國際學者的認同也改變了中國人民的態度。“人們開始以理性的態度討論這個問題，基於歷史證據而不是憤怒的爭吵，”他說。

The writers of the book said they hope "history is history, politics is politics" as research should take no sides.

這本書的作者說他們希望“歷史是歷史，政治是政治”因爲研究不應該有立場。

"Historical research on the tragedy should continue, no matter how relations evolve between China and Japan in the future," Zhang Xianwen said."A good future can come only when people face history in the right way."

“關於慘案的歷史研究應該繼續，無論中日關係在未來如何發展，”張憲文說。“美好未來只有當人們正確面對歷史的時候才能到來。”