勿忘国耻:南京大屠杀全史

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.

南京大屠杀75周年的一个星期之前，那场暴行被完全暴露在上周四出版的一本新书上，该书提供了新的视角和更多理性。

"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.

“《南京大屠杀全史》最明显的特征在于其理性，”张宪文说，南京大学教授和该书主编。英语和日语版本将在未来两年内出版；其他语言的版本在计划内。

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 Most of the book's content comes from historical documents published from 2005 to 2010.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.

这本书，由南京大学出版社出版，描述了三卷的大屠杀，被认为是关于该事件最完整的作品。书的大部分内容来自从2005年到2010年发布的历史文献。“随着该书的出版，努力发现真理已经进入新时代，”孙翟伟说，该书另一位作家和江苏省社会科学院的研究员。

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.

日本军队在中国当时的首都南京发起了一场长达六周的大屠杀，从他们占领了这座城市的1937年12月13日开始。

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世纪80年代发表的书籍和论文集中于反对日本右翼学者对否认历史，张连红说，该书副主编和南京师范大学历史教授。对一些问题的看法出现分歧，他说，引用遇难者人数的不同记录作为例子。

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.

张连红说学者认为这个数字不少于30万。他们没有在这本书里给出具体的死亡人数，但在多个章节提供了遇难者数量的证据。“我们只提供证据。我们想让读者自己思考这件事，”他说。

"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.

“受害者的准确数字并不是最重要的事情。真正重要的是南京大屠杀是一次大规模的暴力入侵。数量惊人的平民和战俘被杀，”他说。

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.

张说客观研究不仅得到了国际学者的认同也改变了中国人民的态度。“人们开始以理性的态度讨论这个问题，基于历史证据而不是愤怒的争吵，”他说。

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

这本书的作者说他们希望“历史是历史，政治是政治”因为研究不应该有立场。

"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."

“关于惨案的历史研究应该继续，无论中日关系在未来如何发展，”张宪文说。“美好未来只有当人们正确面对历史的时候才能到来。”