Nagasaki, Japan - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of city view, traffic
2. Monument for Nagasaki atomic bombing
3. Various of interior of exhibition hall, visitors; items on display
4. Various of information boards at exhibition hall; visitors; exhibits
5. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) visitor (name not given) (ending with shot 6):
"What historical truth actually is can be greatly affected by the way it is phrased. If 'massacre' is expressed as 'incident,' young people who study this history in the future will find it difficult to correctly understand this period of history, and difficult to judge which expression better conforms to historical facts."
6. Exhibition hall; visitors; exhibits
7. Various of traffic, pedestrians

FILE: Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, east China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Exterior of Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders
9. Various of "mass grave" inside memorial hall, visitors
10. Various of visitors in memorial hall; exhibits

A visitor to Japan's Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum has warned that rephrasing historical atrocities makes it harder for future generations to grasp the truth, as the museum moves to replace "Nanjing Massacre" with "Nanjing Incident" in its first major exhibition renewal in roughly three decades.

August 9, 1945, marked the day the United States dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Within days, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. Today, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum serves as a window for peace education and anti-war advocacy. Yet its exhibitions devote far more space to Japanese civilian suffering than to the nation's own wartime aggression, with references to the invasion of China softly labeled as the "War with China" rather than "aggression."

The museum is now carrying out its first large-scale exhibition update in about 30 years.

Under plans released by Nagasaki City, the current reference to the "Nanjing Massacre" will be revised to read "Nanjing Incident - the killing of a large number of civilians and prisoners of war." While "massacre" explicitly denotes large-scale, organized killing, "incident" is a neutral term that can describe any historical or social occurrence. Replacing the former with the latter, critics argue, overturns the historical verdict recognized by the international community.

"What historical truth actually is can be greatly affected by the way it is phrased. If 'massacre' is expressed as 'incident,' young people who study this history in the future will find it difficult to correctly understand this period of history, and difficult to judge which expression better conforms to historical facts," said a Japanese visitor.

Nagasaki City has defended the change by citing the official phrasing used by Japan's Foreign Ministry and government-approved textbooks. Observers say this rationale reveals an official attempt to challenge the post-war international order, downplay the brutality of aggressive war, and inflict secondary psychological harm on victims.

The Nanjing Massacre remains an undeniable historical truth.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East explicitly used the term "Nanjing Massacre" in its judgment, establishing Japanese atrocities through international judicial process. In October 2015, UNESCO officially inscribed a collection of documents concerning the Nanjing Massacre into its Memory of the World Register.

The planned revision has drawn international attention. Britain's The Times has reported on the move and voiced concern over Japan's historical revisionist tendencies.

However, the wording is changed, history itself is unalterable.