Nordstrom removed an item from its clothing line Monday after receiving heated criticism online for selling a hoodie featuring a photo taken from the Nanjing Massacre.
The sweatshirt – which had sold out online under the title “Happiness” – was brought to the attention of internet users who proceeded to flood Nordstrom’s Facebook page with comments questioning how one of the most gruesome massacres in modern history ended up on one of their hoodies.
“[The product] is obviously inappropriate and our Chinese (and Asian) communities feelings are hurt. We urge you to take down the product and any other similar items immediately and you owe the communities an apology,” wrote Yamibuy, an Asian American cosmetics store based in Los Angeles, on its Facebook page.
(Nordstrom screenshot)
Nordstrom apologized via Facebook comment, writing on Yamibuy, “Thanks for reaching out. We’re extremely sorry for disappointing you. The vendor and our teams have been made aware of this item, and will work to have it removed.”
Andrea Marcaccini, the sweatshirt’s designer, responded to criticism that her design stirred up ill feelings by writing that it was actually meant to protest “against war and indifference,” adding that the Nanjing Massacre was overlooked in the West.
“No one ever speaks of that event in the Western world,” Marcaccini wrote on his Facebook. “It is not meant to be offensive in any way, on the contrary, it’s a protest against the bigoted and narrow-minded people.”
The Nanjing massacre was a mass murder and mass rape carried out by Japanese soldiers in Nanjing, then the capital of China, in 1937 during the second Sino-Japanese War.
Japanese troops indiscriminately massacred an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians over a six-week period, often in grisly ways, including systematic group sexual assaults, stabbings, and shootings. Many top-ranking Japanese military personnel were charged with war crimes as a result.
