Roots of the dispute

The dispute began on Monday when Nagoya's Mayor Takashi Kawamura told a visiting delegation from Nanjing that he doubted that the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 ever took place.

Kyodo News Agency reported that Kawamura, whose father was in Nanjing in 1945, said that he believed only "conventional acts of combat" took place there.

"Why were people in Nanjing kind to Japanese soldiers only eight years after the incident?" Kawamura asked, referring to his father's memories. "I could go to Nanjing and attend a debate on the history of the city, if necessary."