NANJING: A Nanjing Massacre survivor has won a defamation suit against two Japanese right-wing historians who accused her of "faking" her account of the atrocity.

Xia Shuqin, a Nanjing Massacre survivor, recounts her ordeal at a news conference in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, yesterday. [REUTERS]

A local court in the first case of its kind in China yesterday ruled in favour of Xia Shuqin and ordered the two Japanese to pay 1.6 million yuan (US$200,000) in compensation and tender a public apology to her in major media in both China and Japan.

Japan's Teiunsya Corporation Limited was also ordered to stop publishing the historians' defamatory books and destroy all those already printed.

The three defendants the historians and the publisher didn't appear in court.

Xia said she had waited a long time for the verdict.

"How could the Japanese make such irresponsible remarks against an innocent civilian like me?" Xia asked after the ruling.

At the age of eight, Xia witnessed several Japanese soldiers kill seven family members on December 13, 1937, the day which marked the beginning of Nanjing Massacre.

The invading Japanese troops slaughtered at least 300,000 Chinese, most of them civilians, in six weeks of burning, looting, raping and killing after occupying Nanjing, then the national capital.

A Japanese soldier also stabbed Xia three times with a bayonet. But the terrified youngster managed to hide in a room full of bodies for 14 days with her four-year-old sister before they were taken to an international safety zone by an elderly couple.

Their experiences were recorded in John Magee's 105-minute documentary film and the wartime diaries of John Rabe.

Magee, an Episcopal pastor, and Rabe, a Hamburg businessman, were among the 22 westerners in charge of the Nanjing International Safety Zone created after the Japanese army captured Nanjing. They recorded the horrible scenes of the Nanjing Massacre using camera and pen.

But Japanese historians Toshio Matsumura and Shudo Higashinakano cast doubt about Xia being a massacre survivor.

Matsumura, in his book "Big Doubts about the Nanjing Massacre," and Higashinakano, in "Thorough Verification of the Nanjing Massacre," questioned Xia's account. Both books were published by Teiunsya Corporation in 1998.

Xia felt deeply hurt by the books and sued the three in the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court in November 2000.

Though the verdict took almost six years, Xia said that it was a victory not just for herself, but also for all massacre victims and their relatives.

Another massacre survivor, 82-year-old Yang Xiulan, who also attended the hearings, said: "Four of my relatives were also killed in the massacre. I fully understand Xia's feelings about the defamation made by the two Japanese."

But Xia said it is a pity that none of the defendants showed up at the court. "I am already 77 years old. I am almost blind and half-deaf. How long do I have to live? I wish I could see the public apology made by the defendants before I die."

Xia's lawyer Tan Zhen said that legal experts from China and Japan would try and work out a feasible way of enforcing the verdict.

Two Japanese lawyers also attended yesterday's ruling in Nanjing on behalf of Xia's Japanese legal aid group led by 11 voluntary Japanese lawyers.

"This verdict is very encouraging. It is a victory for historic truth. We'll present the verdict to the Tokyo District Court as proof to back up Xia in a lawsuit against Higashinakano," said Akira Ibori, with Tokyo Taiju Law Office.

Higashinakano sued Xia in a Tokyo district court in April 2005, demanding she acknowledge that her suit filed in Nanjing had no basis. But Higashinakano's lawyer dropped the case the day it was to be heard when Xia went to Tokyo in June to defend herself.

(China Daily 08/24/2006 page1)