They downplay it because since the war ended, Japan has practically been a UN protectorate, with a limited military and in some ways still under the thumb of those countries that lead them to an embarrassing defeat. Huge blow to national pride = don't talk much about it, downplay it, etc. Tripply embarassing, because the Japanese showed so much hubris before the end of the war, acting like an invincible master race right till the end. The harder the come, the harder they fall.

Hard to deal with the fact that you were born into a very complicated situation you didn't personally create, and are still bearing the weight of it almost 70 years after the fact, because of something a bunch of a dead people of the same nationality did. So they remain quiet. Just like a lot of new worlders remain quiet on the native thing, or even get overly-defensive.

The reason we hear the nutshit insane version of it here in China is the same reason we hear the nutshit insane version of everything here. My Prime Minister recently said that good relations with China should be Canada's first priority, although we need to maintain our core values on human rights. This got shoved through the Chinese nutshit propaganda machine and came out the other end as "Canada Meirihan puppet Chairman says he wants to kill every Chinese woman and baby, end all forms of Chinese national independence."

Likewise, because the Japanese aren't saying exactly what the Chinese want them to say, the Chinese are having a little tantrum, just like they do with every country.

The Japanese education system does not teach or educate the wrong doings from the Showa period meaning if you ask people from Japan today they will have no idea what you are talking about or have some knowledge of the wrong doings caused in this period mainly 1912 to 1945. 

Being from Australia has Japaned ever apoligized for bombing Darwin, Broome, Townsville or the killing and toture of Australian POWS? Answer is NO but this has not harmed trade between our two countries. However they have apoligised on more than one occasion to show that they know of the agression and pain they caused during the war. Below is a list of public aplogises from Japan but not on a country level.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

More personal my gradfather fought against the Japanese during WW2 but showed no sign of hatred towards the Japanese as he said "the past is the past things have happened that we all regret we move forward to build a better future" this is exactly what Japan has done build a better future. Japan to me has the nicest people on this earth, peaceful, and amazing culture (Surely no one can disagree with this).

Then who is to say that Chinese have denial about the Mao Ze dong era with fammine, culturual revoulution to name a few but they don't get taught this meaning they have no idea on what happened during this time. 

Anyway my 2cents

Japan has already apologized for Nanjing more than once. Apologizing for it ad ininitum does not bide well for Japan. Created an itemized list of the atrocities that they need to apologize for on top of that does not seem likely. Nor will it likely have any sweeping impact on China-Japan trade.

It will only be a tool for spurring a cycle of anti-Japan propaganda and hatred (which will not even reach a consensus among Chinese). Sometimes moving forward is the best answer.

How many apologies does it take to heal this sort of thing? The answer is not in another apology/admittance, but in the passing of time and strengthening of healthy trade/exchange between Japan and China. A few more decades and all from that period of time will truly be dead. Then maybe we can see some true healing from the crimes of our grandparents.   

Jiang Zemin even tried to force an apology from the emperor on an invited trip a decade or two ago... Imagine being invited to a nice cup o' tea with the Queen of England only to go there to spit in her eye.

Not all of them do, just a select amount of a-holes. 

Unfortunately the truth is often denied in most countries of the world. Japan is not unique in this. Politics and truth rarely sleep in the same bed

Why should they... AGAIN?

Will China ever apologise for the atrocities of its military, and they acts they committed? In detail?

The problem (now) isn't what happened 70 years ago, it's that the Chinese refuse to let it go to heal and move on... turn on the TV, and EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY you will find a movie about the war with the Japanese. It is, quite frankly, the behaviour of a very sick, very damaged, mind. How would you feel about a woman who, incessantly, talked about her rape when she was 16 years old... all throughout her lifetime, til she was 90, EVERY SINGLE DAY???? You'd say "go get some help, you really really need it!".

<P>If you visit&nbsp;the 'Forbidden City Beijing you will notice the portrait of:</P>
<P>Mr Mao Zedong [ Mao Tse-Tung]. If you visit,&nbsp;The Kremlin , Red Square,&nbsp; Necropolis Moscow, Russian Federation.&nbsp;&nbsp; There you will also notice a portrait of:</P>
<P>Mr <SPAN class=st>Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Why are they there!!</SPAN></P>
<P>Two [2]&nbsp;of the most murderous dictators in history, honored and worshipped by their nations , for what?. It was estimated that Moa&nbsp; alone was responsible for the known deaths, killings, murders, and&nbsp;starvation&nbsp;of some 34-45 million of the nations people, the real figure is estimated much higher in and around the 55-70 million. Stalin numbering in and around the same figures.</P>
<P>Yet China complains about the past behavior of the Japanese in war time, [&nbsp;I am not justifying the actions]. China is filled with hate towards the Japanese nation. However&nbsp;you cannot blames todays generations for what the ancestor were responsible for. I do not see China government asking forgiveness for the Mao's savagery on his nation. In fact it is cleared from books and history. Russia stand the level peg turning a blind eyes to failures and wrong doings. Japan has acknowledged the crimes carried out in&nbsp; time of war. They have to some extend apologized. Now maybe it is China's turn to come clean and stand up&nbsp;and become accountable for the mass killing and starvation of its own people. Hey! this is China it never happened&nbsp; right! How about the USA's ethnic cleansing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how about Vietnam.&nbsp;all unforgiving&nbsp;atrocities of war.<BR>&nbsp;And today many point the finger to the modern day dictators. But&nbsp;never point it at yourselves. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.</P>

Just like in Hollywood.  Seems that if a director wants an Oscar, all he has to do is make a WW II movie about fighting the Nazis...

If you did that................Will you say you did that?!!!!!

Come on....something horrible happened and no one wants to take the blame for it......................Am i right?!!!!

I wouldn't say Japanese deny the Rape of Nanjing, it's more like they claim it was just part of war. 

The same way Americans claim the usage of Agent Orange was just part of the war in Vietnam and so aren't responsible for it anymore. (Yes, I'm American).  Even today, there are a lot of people suffering from Agent Orange in Vietnam with horrendous birth defects going down several generations and the genetic defects are getting passed onto children.  These people are suffering much worse than the Japanese that got radiation from the A-Bomb, as the radiation didn't mutilate DNA and cause genetic defects for several generations of family as Agent Orange did to the Vietnamese.

Chinese seems to have erased their history about how Genghis Khan systematically raped and exterminated a large portion of Chinese. So much so, that they say almost half of all Chinese today are genetically related to Genghis Khan himself.   What the Japanese did was absolutely nothing compared to what Genghis Khan did, the Chinese have certainly suffered through far worse.  So why are the Chinese so focused on Japanese hatred when it's really nothing compared to other things they've suffered through?  The Chinese are very good at selectively remembering what they want to remember, especially if their political leaders have an agenda. 

Ghengis Khan killed so many Chinese that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the whole world went down so much, that we were able to measure it thousands of years later.

Yes, I agree that the Chinese are very unfortunate poor people, but to make Japanese out to be so bad people has more to do with political motivations and thousands of years of hate with conflict.  The casualties the Chinese suffered to the Japanese are *much* less than the casualties Russia suffered during World War 2. Also, the Chinese have gone through historical events that were a thousand times worse than the rape of nanjing. Lets also not forget that 40 million Chinese died under Mao Zedong's leadership due to famine, which is more than twice the amount of Chinese that died in WW2.   Chinese are very good at playing the victim and selectively remembering whatever is convenient for political gain.

Aoi, why do some chinese officials still deny the june 4 incident?

It never happened just like the holocaust.  Sorry.

I cannot guess such Diplomatic Things..But there might be some Diplomacy in denying such facts..