Denials of massacre rebutted by author

A book rebutting denials of the Nanjing Massacre, a notorious rampage of rape and murder by Japanese troops in China in the winter of 1937-38, was published in Shanghai on Monday.

Titled Studies on Nanjing Massacre: Criticism of Japanese Illusion School, the book is a collection of history studies done by Cheng Zhaoqi, director of Shanghai Jiaotong University's Center for Tokyo Trial Studies, over the past 17 years.

The term "illusion school" refers to a group of Japanese scholars - such as Shudo Higashinakano, Minoru Kitamura and Toshio Matsumura - who either deny that the Nanjing Massacre ever happened or claim the huge number of civilians killed by Japanese troops was fabricated for propaganda purposes.