日本酒店放置否认南京大屠杀书籍惹怒中国

TOKYO — She is the colorful face of Japan’s largest hotel chain, known for her garish fashion sense and business books with titles like “I Am a President.”

东京——她是日本最大连锁酒店的活招牌，以炫目的时尚品味和《我是总裁》这样的商业书籍著称。

He is the darker side of the partnership: a right-wing polemicist who has leveraged the couple’s success to support contentious political causes, including defending Japan’s militarist past.

他是右翼辩论家，是夫妇俩中更加阴暗的那一个。他们利用商业上的成功来支持有争议的政治事业，包括为日本军国主义的过去辩护。

Now Fumiko Motoya and her husband, Toshio, founders of APA Group, a Japanese real-estate and hotel empire, are facing a barrage of criticism in China. Their twin projects — business and conservative politics — collided this week in an uproar over right-wing historical books promoted at APA’s chain of 370 budget hotels, in which such publications are often distributed to rooms in much the same way as Gideon Bibles in American hotels.

现在，日本房地产和酒店帝国APA集团的创始人元谷芙美子(Fumiko Motoya)及丈夫元谷外志雄(Toshio)在中国面临着一连串的批评。他们的两项事业——商业和保守政治——本周在一片哗然声中互相冲突，因为APA集团在370家经济型连锁酒店里摆放了推广右翼历史的书籍，就像美国酒店经常在客房里摆放《圣经》一样。

The furor over the books, which promote the claim that Japanese forces did not massacre Chinese civilians during a rampage in Nanjing in 1937, has prompted a rebuke from Beijing and threats of a boycott by Chinese travelers, a fast-growing and economically important group for Japan.

这些书中宣扬，1937年发生在南京的攻城略池中，日本军队并没有屠杀中国平民。这些书引发的愤怒，使得北京对其进行了谴责，中国游客也威胁要抵制APA的酒店。中国游客人数正在快速增长，对日本具有重要经济意义。

“This once again shows that some forces in Japan are still reluctant to look squarely at history, and even try to deny and distort history,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said on Tuesday, as the outcry took on international political dimensions.

中国外交部发言人华春莹周二表示，“这再次表明日本国内一些势力始终不愿正视历史，甚至企图否认和歪曲历史。”

The number of foreigners visiting Japan reached a record 24 million last year, fueled in large part by a surge of visitors from China looking for good food, clean air and quality shopping. Despite continued tensions with its neighbor, Japan has embraced the tourist rush in its effort to look for economic growth drivers, with many retailers hiring Chinese-speaking sales clerks. Last year, Japan approved plans to legalize casinos, with Chinese gamblers partially in mind.

去年到日本旅游的外国游客数量达到了创纪录的2400万，其中以中国游客为主，他们到日本寻求美食、清洁的空气和优质商品。尽管中日关系仍然紧张，但日本已经积极拥抱这股旅游热潮，视之为经济增长的驱动因素，很多零售商都雇用了讲中文的销售员。去年日本还批准了博彩合法化的计划，部分上就是考虑到了可以吸引中国赌客。

The Motoyas have shown how fraught that embrace can be. APA’s stance has touched off anger online in China and condemnation from official media outlets, along with calls for Chinese travelers to take their business elsewhere.

元谷夫妇已经显示了这种展开怀抱可以变得多么令人担心。APA的立场触发了网络上的愤怒和官方媒体的谴责，有人呼吁中国游客去其他地方旅游。

APA has been unrepentant. In a statement, it said that “historic interpretation and education vary among nations,” but it defended Mr. Motoya’s claims about Nanjing.

APA并没有悔改。在一份声明中，它说“对历史的解释和教育因国家而异”，但它为元谷外志雄关于南京的主张进行了辩护。

“Therefore, we have no intention to withdraw this book from our guest rooms,” the company said, adding that “no one-sided pressures” would force it to change its mind. APA invited readers to correct any inaccurate statements “so that we can seriously study about them.”

“因此，我们不打算从客房收回这本书，”该公司说，“来自单方面的压力”不会迫使它改变主意。APA邀请读者纠正任何不准确的声明，“以便我们可以认真研究它们”。

The Motoyas may not be as well known as another divisive and politically minded hotelier, Donald J. Trump, nor are their midmarket properties as gilded. But in Japan, they come close to being stars. Ms. Motoya, in particular, has embedded herself in popular culture though books, television appearances and an intermittent singing career.

元谷夫妇可能不像另一个制造分裂、热衷政治的酒店老板唐纳德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)那么知名，他们的经济型酒店也没有特朗普的那么奢华。但在日本，他们也算是明星了。特别是元谷芙美子，出书、上电视节目、断断续续的歌唱生涯，在流行文化中占据了一席之地。

Wearing the fanciful hats that are her trademark, Ms. Motoya appears in advertisements for APA’s hotels and “APA president” merchandise like curry and rice crackers. She judges televised karaoke contests sponsored by the company, and a CD of her singing nostalgia-tinged songs can be purchased on APA’s website.

元谷芙美子戴着她标志性的奇特帽子，出现在APA酒店和“APA总裁”产品的广告中，比如咖喱和米果。她是该公司赞助的电视卡拉OK比赛的评委，APA的网站上还可以买到她唱怀旧歌曲的CD。

The Motoyas are among the most prominent backers in Japan of rightist historical revisionism. While Fumiko Motoya represents the APA brand in public, her husband writes essays and books that seek to put Japan’s sometimes brutal imperial past in a kinder light. Their activism has put them at the center of controversies that have bedeviled Japan’s relations with China and South Korea for decades.

元谷夫妇是日本右翼历史修正主义最知名的支持者之一。元谷芙美子在公众面前代表着APA品牌，而她丈夫则在写论文写书，试图把日本帝国间或残酷的历史描绘得更为亲切。这种行为，让他们站在了几十年来一直令日本与中国和韩国关系备受困扰的争议中心位置。

“As political patrons, they can’t be ignored,” said Tamotsu Sugano, an author who has researched Japanese rightist groups. “They spread money everywhere.”

“作为政界资助者，他们不容忽视，”研究日本右派团体的作家菅野完(Tamotsu Sugano)说。“他们到处撒钱。”

The Motoyas have used a fortune estimated to be in the billions of dollars to court and support politicians, mostly on the conservative end of the spectrum — from the center-right establishment to the fringe. Guests at their long-running wine parties have included Shinzo Abe, the current prime minister, according to a record of an event in 2005 that includes a photograph and was circulated by APA at the time.

元谷夫妇用来招揽和支持政界人士的资金估计数以十亿美元计，这些人大多数都属于保守派——从中间偏右的建制派到边缘派别。现任首相安倍晋三也参加过夫妇俩长期举行的葡萄酒派对，APA在2005年发布的当年活动记录中有一张安倍晋三的照片。

A Japanese magazine, Shukan Gendai, has estimated that Mr. Motoya, who serves as president of the overall APA Group while Fumiko leads the hotel division, is Japan’s fourth-richest person, with assets worth 220 billion yen, or about $1.9 billion. Shukan Gendai made its calculation based on tax records and on published APA documents, but because the company is privately owned, its disclosures are scarce and a precise figure is difficult to obtain.

元谷芙美子领导着酒店部门，元谷外志雄则担任整个APA集团的总裁，据日本杂志《周刊现代》(Shukan Gendai)估计，夫妇俩是日本第四大富豪，身家高达2200亿日元，约合19亿美元。《周刊现代》根据税务记录和公开的APA文件进行了计算，但由于该公司是私有的，披露的信息很少，难以获得准确数字。

The Motoyas hail from Fukui, a rural area on the Sea of Japan, where they met while working at a small local credit union, according to Ms. Motoya’s autobiography. They built APA from a small operation beginning in the 1970s, starting with real-estate sales before moving into hotels for budget-conscious business travelers. In 2015, they expanded to the United States by buying a 200-room former Hilton hotel in Woodbridge, N.J.

元谷芙美子的自传称，夫妇俩来自靠近日本海的农村地区福井，是在当地一个小型地方信用合作社工作的时候相识的。两人从1970年代经营小生意，从房地产销售开始，之后进入经济型商旅酒店行业，就这样逐步建立了APA集团。2015年，他们在新泽西州伍德布里奇收购了一所200间客房的希尔顿酒店(Hilton hotel)，把生意扩展到了美国。

Right-wing literature has long been a staple, if odd, amenity at APA hotels in Japan. Much of it is written by Mr. Motoya, who uses a pen name but acknowledges authorship.

长期以来，右翼文献都被APA在日本的酒店作为便利设施来提供，虽然这有点奇怪。其中大部分文献都是由元谷外志雄撰写的，他使用了笔名，但承认自己是作者。

The books and articles describe a kind of alternative historical universe, one where Japan fought entirely nobly in World War II and in which its alleged atrocities were invented by Chinese and Korean propagandists. The accounts differ sharply from those of mainstream historians, both in Japan and abroad.

在这些书和文章描述的那个历史世界中，日本在二战中完全是高尚的，所谓的暴行是中国和韩国的宣传机构捏造出来的。这些描述与日本国内外的主流历史学家的说法大相径庭。

One piece of literature that was featured for years was an essay by a former air force general, Toshio Tamogami, which won a prize in an APA-sponsored contest in 2008. In it, Mr. Tamogami claimed that Japan had been duped into attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941, in a plot he said was hatched by Communists inside the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

其中有一篇常年在列的文献出自前空军将军田母神俊雄(Toshio Tamogam)之手，该文在2008年APA赞助的比赛中获得了奖项。田母神俊雄在文中声称，日本1941年攻击美国珍珠港是因为中了圈套，而这个圈套是富兰克林·D·罗斯福(Franklin D. Roosevelt)总统政府中的共产党人设下的。

Mr. Tamogami was fired for writing the essay, and subsequently campaigned unsuccessfully to become governor of Tokyo and for a seat in the national Parliament, before being jailed for campaign finance violations last year.

田母神俊雄因撰写这篇文章而遭撤职，后来竞选东京都知事和日本议会席位均未成功。去年，他因为竞选财务违规行为身陷囹圄。

The latest controversy was touched off by a video on the internet. Posted by a couple describing themselves as an American woman and a Chinese man who stayed at an APA hotel, it shows excerpts from a book by Mr. Motoya denying the Nanjing massacre and the forcible recruitment of women into wartime Japanese military brothels. The video spread quickly through the Chinese internet this week, generating outrage and promises of a boycott.

最新的争议是由一段网上视频引发的。发布它的是一对伴侣，女子自称是美国人，男子自称是中国人，他们入住了APA一家酒店。视频中显示了元谷外志雄一本书的摘录，其中对南京大屠杀和强迫妇女成为日军“慰安妇”的事情进行了否认。这段视频本周在中国互联网上快速传播，引发了众怒，一些人发誓要抵制APA酒店。

For its part, the Japanese government appears to want to keep its distance. The chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, declined to comment on the APA books when asked on Wednesday, saying only that Japan, China and South Korea should seek “forward-looking” ways to cooperate.

在日本政府这方面，他们似乎想和此事保持距离。日本内阁官房长官菅义伟(Yoshihide Suga)本周三拒绝对APA的书籍置评，只是说日本、中国和韩国应该寻求“前瞻性”的合作方式。