Leading world experts to gather at York University to discuss divergent interpretations of Second World War Nanjing Atrocities

TORONTO, March 18, 1999 -- The Japanese occupation of the Chinese wartime capital Nanjing (Nanking) during the Second World War and the events which ensued from December 1937 to February 1938 will be discussed during a symposium entitled The Nanjing Atrocity Re-examined at York University Friday, March 19, 1999, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

The symposium, which will bring together scholars from China, Japan, the U.S. and Canada, will attempt to deconstruct the Nanjing controversy using balanced scholarship. Symposium participants will show what factors have caused such widely divergent interpretations ranging from statements that more than 300,000 Chinese died and 20,000 women were tortured and raped, to suggestions that the atrocities were fabricated.

Sponsored by York University's Department of History (Faculty of Arts) McLaughlin College, and the Joint-Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies and East Asian Studies Program, the symposium is free and open to the public.

WHO:
Professor Timothy Brook (Stanford University) Jimmy Wang's Tour of Duty Along the Border Between Good and Evil, or The Brief Career of the Nanjing Self- Government Committee, 9:10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Professor Joshua A. Fogel, (University of California at Santa Barbara) Was the Nanjing Atrocity an act of Genocide? A "Forgotten Holocaust"? 10:40 a.m. - Noon

Professor Daqing Yang (George Washington University) Three Keys to the Nanjing Atrocity: Experience, Symbol, and History, 1 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.

Professor Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (York University) Mountains and Molehills: The Nanjing 100-Man Killing Contest, 2:30 p.m. - 4:10 p.m.

Mr. Takuji Kimura (Hitotsubashi University) Nanjing Atrocity Studies in Japan: Current State, Future Tasks, 4:20 p.m. - 5:40 p.m.

WHAT:
Symposium: The Nanjing Atrocities Re-examined

WHERE:
McLaughlin College Senior Common Room
York University, 4700 Keele Street

WHEN:
Friday, March 19, 1999, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

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For more information, please visit our web site at www.yorku.ca/dept/histarts or call:

Prof. Bob Wakabayashi
Department of History
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 30422

Sine MacKinnon
Senior Advisor for Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22087

Ken Turriff
Media Relations Officer
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
YU/024/99