My absurd experiences in North America over the years

The republication and sale of the English version of "The Nanjing Massacre" was prepared well in advance.

The publishing company under the Forum Newspapers Group completed the typesetting, proofreading and cover design in just two weeks, with an initial print run of 200,000 copies, which were officially launched in the third week of April.

Li Fu made precise arrangements in his distribution strategy, avoiding large-scale publicity and press conferences. He simply published a small GG in the newspapers and culture sections of the Forum Press Group, accompanied by a quote from Iris Chang's original book: "History does not disappear because it is forgotten."

The book was first published in 1997 on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. At that time, it was the first English book to systematically reveal this history to the North American public.

The book quickly climbed the New York Times bestseller list upon its release and remained at the top for more than three months, causing a strong reaction in Western society and breaking the 60-year silence of Western society on the Nanjing Massacre.

To this day, the book remains the most influential English-language work in the field.

This re-release after thirteen years, despite the lack of any promotion, has still sold well thanks to current public opinion, selling approximately 11,000 copies in the first week, mostly from bookstores on the West Coast and online pre-orders.

However, orders began to surge after The New York Times published a book review titled "A Delayed Trial".

The book review concludes incisively, "This book is not written to incite hatred; on the contrary, it aims to help people see the root of hatred so that it can be prevented from happening again."

The target is subtly aimed at Japanese militarism.

Then there's an NPR book program.

During the program, the host read a passage about what happened in the six weeks following the fall of Nanjing. After finishing, he remained silent for several seconds before speaking, "This is a catastrophe in human history... I don't know what to say, but I just feel that this book should be seen by more people."

Within 24 hours of the program airing, Amazon's inventory was sold out, and Tribune immediately launched a reprint plan.

Discussions about Japanese fascism on Twitter began to surge rapidly.

The hashtag #Nanjing1937 broke into the top three of the North American trending list on the last weekend of April, second only to a baseball playoff topic.

Discussions about the topic of "#The Tragic Memories of the Pacific" have also rebounded, creating a synergistic effect between the two topics.

"I just finished reading the first three chapters of 'The Rape of Nanking,' and I'm not sure if I can finish the rest, not because it's poorly written, but because I find it hard to believe that humans would do such a thing to their own kind."

"My mother is Chinese, and she told me about this massacre when I was a child. I always thought she was exaggerating... I'm sorry, I was wrong."

"Iris Chang's books have been suppressed by the Japanese right wing for so many years, and now they can finally be republished. Her spirit in heaven should be able to see this."

……

The prevailing opinion is supportive, but there are also some voices attempting to refute it.

Some people on Twitter claimed that "these numbers are exaggerated" and "both sides committed atrocities during the war," but these comments were quickly overwhelmed by a large number of historical screenshots and survivor testimonies.

All attempts at cover-up and explanation seem utterly futile.

In the first week of May, things began to change.

A 91-year-old Pacific War veteran in California was interviewed by a local television station at a nursing home.

His son uploaded the interview video to Twitter, where it was retweeted over 100,000 times in two days.

The elderly man stated on camera, "More than 41 of our generation died in the fight against fascism, and nearly 15 sacrificed their lives in the Pacific theater. Many people may not have a sense of this number, but let me tell you, they could have covered every street in San Francisco, leaving no empty space. We were fighting against demons. Imagine if we had lost that war, would Los Angeles have become the next Nanjing?"

These remarks caused a great stir, with public opinion overwhelmingly pointing the finger at those lawmakers.

"Some people are saying we shouldn't expose their atrocities, that it will damage the alliance. But if we had lost that war, would Los Angeles still be the Los Angeles we know today? Would they still be talking about an alliance with us?"

Comments like these abound at the bottom of government websites.

Then, more and more veterans began to speak out.

An organization called "Descendants of Pacific War Veterans" launched an open letter campaign on Facebook and submitted an open letter signed by 376 relatives of veterans to The Washington Post.

The letter's demand that the truth of history not be obscured by diplomatic interests is disrespectful to the more than 100,000 martyrs.

The Washington Post did not publish the letter, but a Los Angeles television station broadcast the story during its evening programming.

In the second week of May, a number of academic reports were published.

A professor in the history department at the University of California, Berkeley, has published a research paper on the forced labor of the Japanese military during World War II, providing new archival evidence.

A Stanford University doctoral student has published an investigative report on the issue of comfort women during the Pacific War, citing original Japanese materials that had not been translated into English before.

Although these academic findings are specialized and generally not of interest to the general public, their interpretation by the media has stirred up new waves in public opinion.

In mid-May, four major polling organizations released the results of their surveys on public opinion regarding Japanese chicken.

Average data shows that the percentage of respondents who believe "Japan has not fully reflected on its history of World War II" rose from 37 percent last month to 62 percent.

The percentage of people who believe that "the United States should urge Japan to face up to its history" rose from 39 percent to 68 percent.

These figures began to appear in the headlines of major news media outlets, drawing increasing public attention.

Against this backdrop, Li Fu received a call from Cole as he stepped out of the MGM conference room.

"You've been making quite a stir lately," Cole's voice came through the receiver, his tone rather neutral, making it hard to tell whether it was praise or a warning.

Li Fu was well aware that he hadn't anticipated public opinion would reach such a point.

"This was not something I actively pushed for; those Democratic lawmakers stood against public opinion, which triggered a fierce backlash."

"I know, but you need to be mentally prepared," Cole cautioned. "You're under intense scrutiny from Congress again. If there's a risk of being investigated, return to Nashville immediately. Los Angeles isn't that safe."

According to several sources, this public opinion has already affected the Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy formulated by the presidential cabinet.

The Pacific region is the strategic focus of the United States' future, and the president's cabinet has set the tone, with some members of the Republican establishment also supporting this strategy.

Li Fu's creation of such a grand spectacle was practically dancing on a knife's edge.

"Also, cool down the public opinion," Cole reminded him that it was necessary to do so because he was doing it in the name of Forrest Capital. "You have to understand that it's a rare consensus between the two parties, and it's difficult for an individual to stop it."

This was one of the main purposes of Cole's phone call.

He had already given a very subtle warning: if things continued to develop, his political enemies would think that the Forrest family was undermining the US-Japan alliance and disrupting national strategy.

Of course, Li Fu was aware of this as well.

If not handled properly, this will be the biggest crisis he has faced since he faced congressional scrutiny last year, or even worse.

"What if I said that this media storm was actually the key to defeating the Democratic Party in the midterm elections?"

He can't cool down the public opinion, because the current public opinion is beyond his control.

But this doesn't mean there's no chance of things turning around.