ABSTRACT
The usage of the word "Holocaust" became ammunition for the Japanese right wing writers in their attacks on The Rape of Nanking. They welcomed every opportunity to introduce the critical views on this issue expressed by Americans. Heilbrunn's criticism was wildly reported in Japan by these groups. Iris Chang refused to have her "errors" in The Rape of Nanking corrected in its Japanese edition. With the end of the Cold War and the death of the Showa emperor, some Japanese historians and journalists started to write impressive books on Japan's wartime atrocities. Efforts to investigate the history of Japan's war crimes have been made in the Japanese Diet. A bill to create a bureau within the Library of Diet to investigate the extent of the damage caused by the Japanese military was introduced in August of 1999.
