The world must not allow Japan to forget the atrocities its military perpetuated during World War II. The cruelty and torture the Japanese army inflicted on innocent civilians across Asia and was so inhumane and uncivilised that it is unparalleled in the annals of human history.

Survivors of the Nanking Massacre have recounted how Japanese soldiers forcibly took girls as young as 10 years old to rape them and after having satisfied their lust, killed and buried them in a mass graves.

Elderly men, women and children were not spared and when the carnage was finally over, 200,000 civilians lay dead after an orgy of killing that has no equal in the history of human conflict.

Selected young women was sent to army camps as sex slaves to satisfy Japanese soldiers while healthy young men were shipped of to Japan to be slaves. All this took place after the Japanese invasion of China and the testimonials of survivors of this holocaust have been properly documented and recorded.

The Japanese government cannot gloss over this dark and evil period of its history and try to deceive its younger generations that Japan did not commit such atrocities. The people of Asia must not allow the present and future generations of Japanese to forget the pain and cruelty the Japanese had inflicted upon the populations of the countries they occupied during WWI.

By trying to whitewash its school textbooks of its true WWII history, the government of Japan has perpetuated a lie. We must not allow this lie to continue. Only by accepting responsibility for their acts only can Japan help ensure that such horrific crimes against humanity will not be repeated in the future.