Tokyo exhibition tells story of Japan's invasion of China

Marcus Detrez, a French man who donated photos documenting Japan's wartime atrocities, wrote "please share your thoughts and reflections" in the guestbook at an exhibition of pictures in Tokyo titled Who Has Been Deceived? Face the Truth, Japanese.

Detrez said he hoped more people would share their observations after learning about this particular piece of history.

Detrez and fellow donors Bastien Ratat and Zhong Haosong held the exhibition on Dec 19 with the aim of raising awareness among Japanese people about their country's atrocities in China committed during World War II.

Most of the photos on display were copies of pictures taken and collected by Detrez's grandfather, Roger-Pierre Laurens, who lived in Shanghai in the 1930s.

The images document the city's suffering, including the Japanese bombing of Shanghai and the massacre of civilians.

Detrez, a 26-year-old English language teacher back in France, discovered the collection in his grandfather's garage in 2021.

He donated the 618 historical photos to the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall in August. Many of the pictures, which were taken between the 1930s and 1950s, document the Battle of Songhu in 1937 and are now permanently preserved at the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall, where they serve as valuable historical records for research on the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Before the Tokyo exhibition, the trio of donors attended the National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre on Dec 13 in Nanjing, and held a similar exhibition in Seoul, South Korea.

For the Tokyo exhibition, Detrez and his co-curators produced a Japanese-language video to accompany the photos.

Ratat noted that the exhibition included substantial coverage of the Nanjing Massacre, to help people better understand the tragic history.

Ratat explained that Japan had invaded China, and because it had largely been erased from Japanese textbooks, the co-curators felt it was necessary to go to Japan to present the facts, through the exhibition.

He also emphasized that recent statements made by Japan's new prime minister regarding Taiwan were serious and could potentially threaten world peace.

"We have to come here to show the Japanese the historical truth, not just about the Nanjing Massacre," Ratat added.

Detrez also believes now is a crucial time to hold such exhibitions.

"I deeply believe we have arrived at the right time; this moment is truly decisive, coming as we did from Nanjing and South Korea," he said. "We have been advocating for peace from the start, just as the Chinese people have."

Zhong Haosong added that the trio has faced criticism from some Western media outlets and obstruction from certain elements in Japan.

"We want to tell the Japanese how the West views this period of history, and how Western evidence presents and documents it," Zhong said. "We hope to convey this accurate and positive information to the Japanese, so that they will no longer be misled by a one-sided narrative."

In October, the trio held an exhibition in Tokyo called The Last Redemption, that showcased Western civilian testimony about Japan's invasion of China.

The Tokyo and Seoul exhibitions are part of a global tour and similar events will be held in Europe and the United States next year.