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A new Japanese movie claims the Nanjing massacre in China never happened. MOREINFO: Controversial Japanese documentary "The Truth about Nanjing" seeks to refute China's claims about the 1937 Nanjing massacre. Reuters visits the set of the movie, one of at least four being made on the subject this year, and talks to the director Satoru Mizushima about the incident on the eve of its 70th anniversary. SCRIPT: Seated in a corner a military prison cell in 1948 is the ghost of the wife of former Japanese Prime minister Koki Hirata bidding her husband farewell moments before he is due to be hanged as a Class A war criminal. While the ghost is pure fantasy and the prison is part of a film set, this is all be part of the controversial docu-drama "The Truth About Nanjing" to be released to the public in the spring of next year. Director Satoru Mizushima is especially proud of the research he has put into his film set and script. SOUNDBITE: Satoru Mizushima, director of "The Truth About Nanjing" (Japanese) "The Chinese government's position now is; 'Let's strike a bargain as long as you admit it was a massacre'. But we refuse to allow that simply because the whole thing is a lie and we don't accept politically-motivated lies," An Allied war crimes tribunal after World War Two estimated about 142,000 civilians and prisoners of war were killed when the Japanese captured the city, then known as Nanking and the capital of Nationalist China. China puts the death toll at 300,000 men, women and children. But backed by nationalist figures including Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, this film claims the massacre never happened and those hanged for it were martyrs. SOUNDBITE: Satoru Mizushima, director of "The Truth About Nanjing" (Japanese) "They resemble Jesus Christ who was nailed to the cross in order to bear the sins of the world. They (the war criminals) died carrying all of old Japan's good and bad parts to the gallows," PIECE-TO-CAMERA: Emotions continue to run high on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre on December 13th. The Chinese government has already heavily condemned the movie and no fewer than four Chinese films have been released or have already been release depicting the Chinese version of the 'truth' about Nanjing. Olivier Fabre, Reuters, Tokyo