The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, a memorial dedicated to the victims of the August 9, 1945 atomic bombing, faces controversy amid plans to revise its historical exhibits for the first time in three decades. The proposed changes, scheduled to be implemented in coming months, have ignited debate over the portrayal of Japan’s wartime actions, particularly regarding the events in Nanking in 1937.

The museum currently refers to the six-week period following the Japanese army’s entry into the Chinese city as the “Great Nanking Massacre,” during which hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed and thousands of women and girls were raped. Under the new plan, the display will use a more muted description, calling it the “Nanjing Incident, in which numerous civilians and prisoners of war were killed.” Additionally, language describing Japan’s broader military actions in East Asia will be softened from terms such as “aggression” to phrases like “overseas expansion” or “military actions” framed as self-defense. The revised exhibits will also downplay the context of Japanese imperialism, including its impact on colonized populations in Korea and China.

Teruhisa Minami, 77, whose four older siblings perished in the bombing of Nagasaki and who serves as a vocal critic of the revisions, said the softened language obscures Japan’s wartime atrocities and shirks responsibility for its aggressive past. “Such alterations conceal Japan’s dark history and evade confronting the facts of its aggression,” he said. Minami identifies as a hibakusha—a survivor of the atomic bomb—and stresses the importance of acknowledging both the devastation caused by the bomb and the historical context of Japanese military actions.

Tetsuro Haraga, deputy head of the Nagasaki Peace Museum, rejected claims that the museum is yielding to external pressure, asserting that the changes reflect terminology endorsed by Japan’s foreign ministry and state-approved educational materials. Nonetheless, the revisions follow lobbying efforts by conservative nationalist groups who deny or minimize Japanese wartime abuses, especially regarding Nanking. This has drawn sharp criticism from the Chinese government, local and national opposition forces in Japan, and scholars concerned about a broader trend of historical revisionism in Japanese politics.

The debate touches on the longstanding struggle over how to present the legacy of World War II in Japan. Early postwar narratives, shaped during the U.S. occupation, emphasized the suffering and physical destruction caused by the atomic bombs while largely sidestepping Japan’s military aggression that precipitated the conflict. During the 1990s, more explicit acknowledgments of Japanese wartime atrocities were included in museums and official statements, notably in a 1995 apology from then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama. However, conservative pushback soon followed; exhibits featuring photographs of Chinese victims from Nanking and the Philippines’ Bataan Death March were removed in 1996, and apologies were diluted under later administrations, including that of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

With the rise of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female premier and a political figure aligned with right-wing revisionist viewpoints, the current alterations are seen by some as reflecting renewed nationalist confidence. Masamitsu Watanabe, head of the Citizens’ Association to Correct the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition, denies that the Nanjing massacre occurred, asserting civilian casualties were nonexistent and contending that such historical perspectives damage Japan’s national pride and self-confidence.

As the museum moves forward with its proposed revisions, the debate underscores ongoing tensions within Japan and beyond over how history, memory, and responsibility are reconciled in the face of painful wartime legacies.