Matsuoka Tamaki compiles strong evidence to convey the truth of the Nanjing massacre

"The right-wing politicians are afraid of me, because the truth stands by my side"

For Ms Tamaki, the purpose of conducting her investigation into the Nanjing massacre was to provide the truth to the public.

Ms Tamaki's book The Battle of Nanjing–a Search of Sealed Memory, comprising the testimonies of Japanese veterans, was published in 2002. The next year, her second book, Battle of Nanjing – Torn Souls of the Victims, which was written based on the testimonies of survivors, came out. In the same year, a road show, in which 58 boards with information collected from investigations from home and abroad were displayed in more than 40 places in Japan

"Most of the survivors of the Nanjing massacre were above the age of 80 and the Japanese soldiers were even older. As time passed by, there will be fewer living witnesses. That's why I decided to record the testimonies of both the villains and victims on video tapes." In 2009, with the help of her friends Li Boyao and Takeda Tomokazu, Ms Tamaki's first documentary Torn Memories of Nanjing was released. The documentary, threaded with the testimonies of seven Japanese veterans and six Chinese survivors, was shown for 13 weeks in cinemas in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. This year in April, the Chinese version of this documentary was premiered in Nanjing.

Later, Ms Tamaki produced her second documentary, the 30-minute-long Matsumura Gocho in Nanjing, in which the atrocities – slaughtering women and children in Hebei and raking with gunfire innocent civilians during the Nanjing massacre – conducted by Matsumura Yoshiharu, a soldier of Wing 33, Division 16 of the Japanese army, were recorded through testimonies.

What Ms Tamaki has done was like thrusting a sharp rapier at the Japanese right-wing, which also made her – an ordinary woman according to herself, a "well-known figure" in the eyes of her opponents. And she was constantly targeted for this reason – receiving more than 100 critical phone calls in two days. Her mailbox was packed with letters full of malice and the right-wing propagandists wreaked havoc at her workplace and during assembly. "I am getting used to that," she said.

"I regard the rage of the right-wing as an encouragement to me. And sometimes they actually do me a favor", said Ms Tamaki. "I was invited onto a TV program when my book The Battle of Nanjing–a Search of Sealed Memories was published. And the right-wing instigated a boycott. At first I was worried that no one would buy my book because of the boycott. However, the public was widely attracted because of this event and 10,000 copies of the book were sold in the blink of an eye.

"To some extent, the right wing is afraid of me because the truth stands by my side and they could not find evidence to disapprove my findings, so all they could do was to shout and provoke. This makes me fully aware of the importance of revealing the truth about history", said Ms Tamaki.

Many Japanese citizens chose to believe and support Ms Tamaki. There was a long queue outside the cinema before the showing of Matsumura Gocho in Nanjing. Some people even came with oxygen cylinders.

Nowadays, with a prevailing tone of denying the Nanjing massacre fueled by political right-deviation, young people in Japan are less willing to learn the history of what actually took place. Ms Tamaki was quite worried about the situation, but she thought: "This is the precise moment to carry on. Telling the truth to young people and teaching them how to view history squarely are grave missions of ours," she said.