On Tuesday a Chinese version of a history book covering the Sino-Japanese War seven decades ago was published. The book is titled: From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor: Who was responsible? It was written by a group of Japanese journalists who have been doing interviews since 2005. They completed the book after 14 months of research. The journalists are affiliated with the War Responsibility Reexamination Committee, an organization set up by the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun.

The book contains 350,000 Chinese characters. Xinhua Publishing House printed the book, which is comprised of three sections.

The first section covers the background of the Sino-Japanese War, detailing various aspects of Japanese society and government before the war, from the Emperor, the government and military leaders to the press.

The second section introduces the period from 1928 to 1945. It includes a cluster of critical events beginning with the 1931 Manchurian Incident, to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 and concluding with Japan's surrender in 1945.

The third section, definitely the most interesting part of the book, analyzes who was responsible for the war and what lessons modern Japan can learn from the war.

"People with no experience of wartime are now a majority of the Japanese population. As such, I believe it is the Yomiuri Shimbun's obligation as the nation's largest newspaper to tell the Japanese populace: Who was responsible for starting the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, why they did so and why the nation kept fighting until many of its cities had been almost completely reduced to ashes," said Tsuneo Watanabe, Editor-in-Chief of the Yomiuri Shimbun, in the book's foreword.

The book also includes more than 100 photos, taken by the photographers of Yomiuri Shimbun during the war, most of which are being published for the first time in China.

"The Yomiuri Shimbun's efforts are based on its belief that there can be no genuinely honest and friendly dialogue with those countries which suffered considerable damage and casualties in the wars with Japan, without correctly understanding Japan's past," Watanabe stated.

"Although I have some different opinions from this book regarding the research on the Sino-Japanese War, I truly admire the courage of the writers from Yomiuri Shimbun. They stepped over parochial nationalism and did valuable academic work," said Bu Ping, Director of Institute of Modern Chinese History of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in his preface for the Chinese version.

This year is the 70th anniversary of the start of the Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing Massacre.

According to China's official record, about 35 million Chinese died in the eight-year war, including 31.2 million civilians.

China has long complained that the Japanese government has failed to properly recognize its responsibility for the war and to make a formal apology.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2007)