Nanking Massacre
Sorry to lay this one on you, but I'm feeling pretty upset right now.
I started reading the book Embracing Defeat last night. Reading about even hints of Japan's actions during WWII in Asia makes me mad. This is just the reaction of a reasonably educated Chinese American who hasn't been in a native Chinese country for more than a decade, imagine what people in China or Korea must feel?
Here's a link to facts about the 1937 Nanking Massacre--referred to in the Japanese textbooks as "Nanking incident," "an incident in which many Chinese were killed," "during Japan's advancing in and out of China."
http://www.cnd.org/njmassacre/
Warning: don't open up the photos. Seriously, you probably won't be able to sleep for days. Some of these photos are the same ones I saw during a class in 6th grade in Taiwan. I can still remember the whole thing. Each of the 12 classes in 6th grade had to go through this, and some classes had done it before us. But NO ONE, not one single 12 year old, would tell us anything about this "special class." During our turn, I remember our teacher didn't say a word about what we're going to do, just quietly lined us up and took us down to the basement library. "You have 45 minutes." No other directions were given once we're there, just a pile of A4 sized glossy booklets scattered on all of the reading tables, titled simply "Nanking Massacre." I remember as the class went on, some girls ran out of the library, some were sobbing in the corridors, and everyone were afraid to make eye contact with each other.
Today, my teacher is asking me to make a reading comprehension exercise for the 3rd year students, focusing on the passive tense. Any topic is okay.
3 Comments:
The Rape of Nanking is one of the world's shamefully forgotten atrocities, and one for which Japan has never fully apologized. It's symptomatic of Japan's embarassing failure to account for its own war guilt, as if suffering the only use of atomic weapons somehow cleansed them of wrongdoing and converted them to victim. People say "No More Hiroshima's," and they're right, but they should also say "No more systematic, genocidal slaughter of the Chinese under the Great Asian Co Prosperity Sphere" and "No more Bataan Death Marches". It's absolutely disgusting how the world just turns a blind eye to Japanese war guilt- as best I can tell, the rationale is "Well, Hitler was really the bad guy, right? And Japan's our friend now, and we like their consumer electronics!" Make no mistake about it, the Japanese war machine was no less evil and had no less sickening genocidal inclinations that Nazi Germany. Why does the world conveniently forget this? Why? How?
What you said, with one minor correction and some more.
The so-called "Greater East Asian Co prosperity Sphere" is the Japanese idealism/propaganda for a unified bloc of Asian nations free of Western powers--and implicitly under Japanese rule. Using the term to denounce Japanese aggressions in Asia sounds out of whack to me.
I want to distance myself from the position that Japan "owes" Asia an apology. Yes, Japan could do more to be forthright on its war crimes, but it has since demonstrated itself, over two generations, as one of the leaders in promoting peace and development in East Asia, through it's donations to UN, Worldbank, and development programs of neighboring countries (interesting: today's Japan in a way is starting to resemble the 21st century's Asian version of the pre-Holocaust rich Jews hated everywhere in Europe).
The current anti-Japanese sentiment in China is understandable given Japan's continued unwillingness to confront its murderous past, but I think it has more to do with diplomatic power-struggle than genuine and sincere outrage. By forcing Japan to re-write its history to China's liking, China is essentially demanding Japan's subservience and tributiary--the implicit equivalent of kowtow. A power move, as Japan is arguably China's only rival in Asia.
I think it is not only wrong for Japan to not own up to its war past, but stupid. Not doing so is exposing its constant diplomatic sore spot for China to prod at, as well as alienating its obvious ally in South Korea.
I don't remember where I read this, but wouldn't it be a brilliant move if China, without a new Japanese apology in place, issued an official statement FORGIVING Japan of all wrong-doings?
I could be wrong, but the "Sphere" term was, if I remember correctly, used throughout the 20s and 30s by Japan to justify/re-label/spin their territorial aggrandizement as something other than the wanton invasion of other lands for fun and profit. Sort of akin to the Greater Eastern Europe Co Prosperity Sphere that Germany was so kind to extend to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and parts of Russia. From Wikipedia:
"The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (大東亜共栄圏 dai-tōa-kyōeiken) was an attempt by Japan to create a bloc of Asian nations free of influence from Western nations. It is remembered today largely as a front for the Japanese control of Axis-occupied countries during World War II, in which puppet governments manipulated local populations and economies for the benefit of wartime Japan.
The idea of the Co-Prosperity Sphere was announced by Foreign Minister of Japan Matsuoka Yosuke in 1 August 1940 in a press interview, but went back many years. Leaders in Japan—then, as now, the richest country in the region—had long been interested in the idea, partly to extend Japanese power and partly to free Asia from being colonies of European countries.
As part of its war drive, Japanese leaders spoke of "Asia for Asians" and the need to liberate Asian countries from imperialist powers. In some cases they were welcomed when they invaded neighboring countries, driving out the British and French armies. In general, however, the subsequent brutality and the hardship of war led to the Japanese being regarded no better and in some cases much worse than Western colonists. The Co-Prosperity Sphere collapsed with Japan's downfall."
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