TOKYO - As China tries to keep memories alive of the Nanjing Massacre, which started 70 years ago this week, a Japanese film-maker is doing his part to convince the world it never happened.

Several films have come out to mark the anniversary of the massacre, which started on December 13, 1937 after Japanese troops stormed the then Chinese capital also known as Nanking.

"Nanking," a Chinese production with Hollywood backing, has hit cinemas in Asia and the West, inspired by late US writer Iris Chang's book "The Rape of Nanking" documenting the horrors.

In Japan, director Satoru Mizushima is working on "The Truth of Nanking," the first of a three-part series alleging the massacre did not happen.

"I absolutely believe it did not happen. The allegation suddenly popped up at the Tokyo tribunal," which tried Japanese war criminals after World War II, Mizushima told AFP.

China, which has likened the bloodshed to the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany, says about 300,000 civilians were massacred, and earlier this month published a list of 13,000 victims.

Allied trials of Japanese war criminals mentioned 140,000 victims.

While Japan has apologised for wartime atrocities in Nanjing and elsewhere, it has never officially put a figure on the number of dead.

Surveys show a majority of Japanese concede their country committed wrongs during the war, but some Japanese nationalists, who have been wielding growing influence since the late 1990s, insist the massacre is Chinese propaganda.

"For example, Chiang Kai-shek held 300 press conferences in the 11 months following the fall of Nanjing," Mizushima said, referring to the leader of the anti-communist Republic of China which was once based in the city.

"He told the international media, 'Japan did this, and Japan did that.' But there was absolutely no mention of Nanjing. Not a single word."

"This and many other things provide solid evidence the so-called massacre did not happen," Mizushima said.

While his opinions are not in the mainstream, a number of leading Japanese politicians have questioned wartime history.

Former premier Shinzo Abe, who stepped down in September, drew controversy for hedging on whether he accepted the legitimacy of the US-led Tokyo trials. His grandfather was arrested but not tried as a war criminal.

A group of conservative lawmakers, headed by a former education minister, also issued a report in June dismissing the Nanjing massacre as a fabrication, angering the Chinese government.

Mizushima, who runs a small broadcasting company, said he had collected 1.8 million dollars in donations from 5,000 supporters to produce the trilogy.

He said it would portray the seven Japanese who were hanged for war crimes, including wartime premier Hideki Tojo, as "martyrs" who took the blame to save the motherland.

"If you see the film, you will know Hitler and Tojo were absolutely different," said Mizushima.

"I have high respect for the Chinese culture. But I firmly believe the Chinese government needs to be condemned for its propaganda and teaching children lies under its anti-Japan education policy," he said.

According to Mizushima, the massacre is an excuse for the United States to place the blame on Japan while ignoring its own wartime deeds, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Mizushima lamented the materialism of post-war Japan, now the world's second largest economy and one of Washington's closest allies.

"After the war, Japan has come to look like a carbon copy of the West," said Mizushima.

"People are consumed by their immediate desires, want more things and want them now. They lost the sense that our ancestors live with us to this day," he said. "Japan became a very sad nation after the war." - AFP/ra