Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

[Catwoman]

The closer of a piece in The Independent today detailing the catalyst for the current 'you did it first' playground riots between Japan and China.

Reasons the Chinese are peeved with the Japanese (adapted from the article):

1. Nanjing. Japanese troops poured in on 13 December 1937 after suffering heavy casualties in Shanghai. They began a six week orgy of raping, killing and looting which the United Human Rights Council later described as 'the single worst atrocity during the WW2 era'. Witnesses said soldiers practised with bayonets on tied-up prisoners, burnt others alive and set dogs on children. Pregnant women were raped and bayoneted, decapitated heads were put on spikes or waved around like trophies, hundreds of unarmed civilians were mowed down with machine guns and dumped in rivers and open graves. A Chinese-American author who researched and documented these attacks claims that more than 300,000 Chinese died and at least 20,000 women were raped. She committed suicide this year, having 'felt rage' and suffered from nightmares during her research.

2. Unit 731. At the time the most elaborate biological warfare programme ever created, that turned diseases such as typhoid, anthrax, smallpox, cholera and dysentry into mass-produced killers. Atrocities included dissection of live prisoners in an attempt to determine the effects of pathogens on the human body. Yoshio Shinozuka, just 16 at the time, was dispatched by authorities to assist with the experimentation. He recalls: "I knew the Chinese individual we dissected alive. At the vivisection I could not meet his eyes because of the hate in them. He was infected with plague germs and, as the disease took its toll, his face and body became totally black. Still alive, he was brought on a stretcher to the autopsy room, where I was ordered to wash the body... The man's organs were methodically excised one by one." No one has been held to account for this 'research', no one has gone to court. At the time, American military scientists emphasised the 'extreme value' of the intelligence gained, saying "The value to the US of Japanese biological warefare data is of such importance to national security as to far outweigh the value accruing from 'war crime' persecution."

3. Schoolbooks. Japanese children are ignorant of Asian history, thanks to a curriculum that glosses over imperial Japan's brief but brutal colonial adventure. In contrast, every 15 year old in China is taught that wartime Emperor Hirohito's brainwashed troops butchered and looted their way across the country. The difference is stark.

Now there are mass riots, and both sides think the other side should apologise first. Commentators think it could lead to greater conflict.

My hands were shaking typing some of the graphic lines above.