China: Nanjing Is 'More Worthy' Of Remembrance Than Hiroshima

Just ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit, China said Friday that more than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan's World War II violence is "more worthy of remembrance."

Even though the Hiroshima bombing claimed 140,000, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi declared that the killing of civilians in Nanjing "deserved greater reflection".

"Hiroshima is worthy of attention. But even more so Nanjing should not be forgotten," the ministry's website cited. "Victims deserve sympathy, but perpetrators should never shirk their responsibility," he said.

There were 300,000 people who were killed in a six-week massacre, rape, and destruction after the Japanese army came into Nanjing in 1937.

Academics put the number lower. For instance, China historian Jonathan Spence calculated that 42,000 soldiers and citizens were massacred and 20,000 women raped.

The state-run China Daily newspaper wrote Thursday that the "atomic bombings of Japan were of its own making".

It said that present-day Japanese officials were "trying to portray Japan as the victim of World War II rather than one of its major perpetrators".

While Japan condemns the Hiroshima bombing, China's ruling Communist party also recalls brutal killing by Japanese soldiers who occupied China during the War.

Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were "justified" said the China Daily. It was "a bid to bring an early end to the war and prevent protracted warfare from claiming, even more, lives".

"It was the war of aggression the Japanese militarist government launched against its neighbors and its refusal to accept its failure that had led to the US dropping the atomic bombs," it added.

A commentary published Friday by China's Communist party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said that Japan had "disregarded the feelings of Asian countries, manipulated historical facts, abandoned peaceful promises, and created threats to the regional security situation".