ABSTRACT
I first learned of the terrible atrocities that the Japanese military committed against Chinese people during the Second World War through reading Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking. 1 Having read the book I began to feel veiy ashamed of being Japanese. In 1998 I went to Changde City in Hunan Province to investigate the biological warfare conducted by the Japanese Army during the Second World War. My second visit to China was to Nanjing itself, in 2005. I was deeply shocked to discover the historical facts, and to learn about the victims who have been suffering from the effects of biological warfare. I had never had a chance to learn these facts at school, nor from the Japanese media. As a Japanese citizen I wanted to apologize sincerely to the Chinese people for Japan's aggression during the war, so with other people at a peace museum called Grassroots House in Kochi, Japan, I began to support the Chinese victims who demanded an apology and compensation from the Japanese state.
