China gives cool response to news of Nanjing massacre film by Japanese nationalists

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman hit back Thursday at a Japanese director who says he will shoot a documentary film that denies tens of thousands of people died during the Nanjing Massacre. Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said there is "ironclad" evidence, supported by the international community, that proves Japanese troops massacred soldiers and civilians when they captured what was then the Chinese capital in 1937.

Japanese director Satoru Mizushima, who has the backing of a number of conservative lawmakers and academics, announced Wednesday he is going to make the film, called "The Truth about Nanking," according to reports. "This will be our first effort to correct the errors of history through a film," Mizushima is reported to have said at a press conference in Tokyo to launch the film project.

It will be based on testimony from Japanese war veterans, archive footage and documentary evidence that proponents said will show the massacre is "nothing more" than Chinese propaganda.