Masaaki Tanaka

Masaaki Tanaka
Native name	田中 正明
Born	February 11, 1911
Died	January 8, 2006 (aged 94)
Nationality	Japanese
Notable work	What Really Happened in Nanking: The Refutation of a Common Myth

Masaaki Tanaka (田中 正明 Tanaka Masaaki) (February 11, 1911 – January 8, 2006) was a Japanese author notable for his book What Really Happened in Nanking: The Refutation of a Common Myth, which denies that the Nanking Massacre as traditionally understood took place.^[1] Originally written in Japanese in 1987, an English version was published in 2000 in response to Iris Chang's book, The Rape of Nanking.

Document Tampering Controversy

A Japanese World War II veteran, Tanaka served as General Iwane Matsui's secretary at the time of Nanking Massacre in 1937.^[2] He was involved in a controversy in 1986 when he was found to have altered a key historical document, Matsui Iwane Taishō no jinchū nikki (松井石根大将の陣中日記, "General Matsui Iwane's Battlefield Diary"), in several hundred places when serving as the editor for its publication in 1985.^[3] He suffered academic ostracism after the controversy but remained an active author for the non-academic market.

References

1. http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks/MJ/war_views.htm
2. Barnhart, Michael A. (April 15, 2008). "Chapter Eight: History as Victim: The Sorry State of the Study of US-Japanese Relations, 1900-1945". In Schultzinger, Robert. A Companion to American Foreign Relations. John Wiley & Sons. p. 122. ISBN 9780470999035.
3. Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashi (2001). "The Nanking Massacre: Now You See It, ...". Monumenta Nipponica 56: 527. doi:10.2307/3096672.