Tokyo-based Shueisha Inc. received nearly 200 angry phone calls and letters protesting its portrayal of scenes of the killings in its comic Kuni ga Moeru (The Country is Burning), published Sept. 22, a spokesman said Oct. 14.

The comic series, featuring the life of a Japanese bureaucrat in the tumultuous times of the early 20th century, had been carried by the popular Weekly Young Jump.

A group of 37 members of local assemblies protested to the publisher Oct. 5, arguing that the Rape of Nanjing had never taken place and that the depiction of the scene in the comic distorted history.

Beijing says as many as 300,000 men, women and children were slaughtered by rampaging Japanese troops in the former Chinese capital.

The 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 in Nanjing, mainly women and children.

The Japan Times Weekly: Oct. 23, 2004
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