Rising tensions and an increased number of incidents between China and Japan in the current century show that the Nanjing Massacre has had an indisputable effect on modern Sino-Japanese relations politically and socially. Iris Chang’s book of popular history, The Rape of Nanking (1997), both renewed scholarly research and moved the debate into the public eye. This shift in the debate has led to continuing tensions between the two societies even as their governments officially maintain a peaceful relationship. The culture of “face” has made these Sino-Japanese tensions consistently intractable in the 21st century and sparked a number of anti-Japan protests in China. After Japan betrayed its position as inferior to the superior China by committing atrocities upon the Chinese people and has since refused to directly apologize for these atrocities, the Chinese people have been unable to resolve the issue of their humiliation as a countr
