TOKYO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- An organizer of the 8th Asian Winter Games (AWG) said on Thursday that he believes Japan's hotel chain APA Group will withdraw all controversial books from rooms of its hotel in Sapporo.
The organizing committee, through its agency, demanded the APA hotel remove all publications from its guest rooms when selecting the hotel as the athletes' village in April 2015, Hisachika Yamazaki, an official working in the athletics section of the organizing committee of the 2017 Sapporo AWG, told Xinhua.
"They accepted it, so we chose them," he said.
"As the Winter Games approach, we have again made the same request to all designated reception hotels. We believe APA hotel will not reject it," said the official.
The organizing committee will check all the rooms before the Winter Games to ensure all the books are removed, said Yamazaki.
The Chinese Olympic Committee on Thursday confirmed having received a reply from the secretary-general of the AWG organizers, which said the APA hotel has decided to remove the books from its rooms, hotel lobby and the front desk.
The 8th AWG will be held in Sapporo and Obihiro on Feb 19-26. To save cost, the 2017 Sapporo AWG has not built an athletes village, and chose two local hotels as official designated hotels for athletes. APA Hotel&Resort Sapporo is one of the two hotels.
According to accommodation arrangement, athletes from the Chinese and South Korean delegations will be accommodated in the hotel.
The APA Group has sparked public outrage recently as books placed in its hotel rooms deny Japan's wartime history, including the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and the forced recruitment of "comfort women" before and during World War II.
The books, with both Japanese and English versions, written by APA Chief Executive Toshio Motoya, are filled with right-wing, revisionist views, including such claims as "the Nanjing Massacre was fabricated by the Chinese side and did not actually happen," "'comfort women' were just prostitutes," and the "International Military Tribunal for the Far East was the winner's revenge against the loser."
An estimated 300,000 Chinese were massacred in six weeks after the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, the then capital city of China in December 1937. It was one of the worst atrocities committed by Japan against civilians in the 20th century.
