China on Friday accused Japan's new defense minister of recklessly misrepresenting history after she declined to say whether Japanese troops massacred civilians in China during World War II.
Tomomi Inada, a 57-year old lawmaker known for her revisionist views of Japan's wartime history, took up her post on Thursday and repeatedly sidestepped questions at a briefing on whether she condemned atrocities committed by Japan.
China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 massacre in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then the capital.