Commemoration of Nanjing Massacre in Canada matters

Manitoba became the second province in Canada to propose recognizing and commemorating the Nanjing Massacre when its legislature passed the second reading of the Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day Act, or Bill 233, on Thursday, immediately after the Ontario provincial parliament passed a motion to do the same.

Motion 66 was passed in the Ontario provincial parliament, if enacted into law it will establish Dec 13 as Nanjing Massacre Commemoration Day. This would be the first of its kind in a Western country, and Canada would become the first Western country where a day has been designated to commemorate the tragedy, in which invading Japanese forces massacred more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants over six weeks in December 1937 and January 1938, after their capture of the city.

What the two Canadian provinces have done is, first of all, of significance to ensure the world remembers the victims of the atrocity, but it can also serve to facilitate the elimination of the militarist mindset in Japan.