Former Japanese footballer Honda apologizes for questioning Nanjing Massacre

Former Japanese footballer Keisuke Honda apologized on Saturday on X, saying he was mistaken to support false claims made by Japanese right-wing politicians Shintaro Ishihara and Takashi Kawamura regarding the Nanjing Massacre. 

On Friday, Honda shared a video clip during which Ishihara denied the Nanjing Massacre took place. Honda expressed his agreement by posting, "I believe that too."

Honda's post sparked outrage worldwide, with many social media users urging him to study historical materials related to the Nanjing Massacre. One commenter, in Japanese, even said, "If you don't study history well, you'll end up on the path of historical revisionism."

On Saturday, Honda said he had changed his opinion after examining historical documents. He posted a list of references he used to re-examine the massacre, including diaries and reports by Japanese soldiers, internal military documents from the Japan National Institute for Defense Studies, as well as records and testimonies from foreigners who were present in Nanjing at the time. 

"These historical materials were not fabricated after the war but have existed since immediately after the incident. Since independent records from multiple countries and perspectives corroborate each other, they hold high academic credibility," Honda wrote.

Later that day, he retweeted Friday's post and corrected it, writing: "Although I thought I knew about history, I made some optimistic comments. However, after researching primary sources in detail, I realized that the facts (about the Nanjing Massacre) are almost consistent with history. In this respect, I was wrong. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn that again!"

The Nanjing Massacre followed Japanese troops' capture of Nanjing, the then Chinese capital, on December 13, 1937, leaving more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers dead.