| Username |
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 25-Mar-03 12:20 AM
It happened more than 50 years ago, when the Geneva Convention didn't exist, when there were not enough international laws and conventions on atrocities in war. I am by no means implying that the civilians these days go through the atrocities highlighted in the article. My whole point is: War is bad. Even the civilians these days don't have to go through the "physical" torture, the "mental" pressure is immence. I hope the war in Iraq will come to an end soon.
The Rape of Nanking [Book Review]
In The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang, a Chinese-American writer whose grandparents survived the Nanking massacre (nanjing da tu sha, in Chinese), presents a gripping account of the slaughter of innocent Chinese civilians of Nanking by soldiers of the Japanese army in 1937-38, a story still unknown to many. She follows the famous Japanese director Akira Kurasawa's approach of presenting the truth, i.e., the
multiple faces of truth as witnessed and told by each party involved: the Japanese government, the Chinese civilians, and the American and European missionaries and professionals who happened to be there at the time. Chang draws on anecdotes and historical documents of the International War Crime Tribunals for the Far East held in Japan after the end of the Second World War, and also relies on films, newspaper
articles published at the time, and photographs and diaries of the foreigners who set-up "the Nanking Safety Zone" in an attempt to help save lives.
The Japanese military, in a disastrous bid for national and regional supremacy that ended only with the nightmare bombings of 1945, invaded China in the 1930s. Encroaching on Chinese territory had been a continuous process for the Japanese military from the time they established a puppet government of Henry Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, in Manchuria in 1931. The process reached a violent and horrific
climax with the capture of Nanking, the Chinese nationalists' capital. Though much of the world today knows about the genocide of the Jews by Hitler, the world community for the most part is yet to learn about a massacre which killed almost 300,000-400,000(estimated) innocent Chinese civilians in the span of six weeks. And scores of others had to go through the most humiliating experiences of their lives such as having to witness their wives, daughters, sisters, mothers and in some cases even their grand-mothers
being raped by the Japanese troops. Monks, who had taken the vow of celibacy were forced to commit necrophilia, and men were forced to commit incest, sodomized and amputated, if not beheaded, buried alive or used for bayonet practice. The women were gang raped by the Japanese soldiers often in front of their family members, and were forced to pose for nude pictures for the amusement and enjoyment of the Japanese
soldiers. The historical city of Nanking was totally devastated; historical monuments were destroyed, art works were looted and the fields of the Yangzi river delta which once produced crops became a mass burial ground. Chang in her book establishes this atrocity as an inseparable part of Japanese imperialist policy toward China, and dismisses the argument that the tragedy had nothing to do with the Japanese government and was solely the responsibility of individual soldiers.
Chang writes that, "[s]ince the beginning of the 20th century Japan had been occupied by an old myth which called for the Japanese rule of the world." In the complex political swirl of Japan in the early part of the 20th century, the myth of a divine imperial destiny became the tool of a military clique that, having crushed left wing opposition in Japan itself, turned to an imperial adventure in China. Domestic unrest in China during the earlier decades of the last century proved a boon to the Japanese. Japanese military advances into China met with a little or no resistance, as the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-Shek was more interested in fighting the Communists in rural areas. The fall of
Shanghai to Japanese troops in 1937 marked a new massive scale invasion of China, which came to its fruition in Nanking.
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 25-Mar-03 12:28 AM
The historic city of Nanking is often regarded as the hub of Chinese civilization. It is claimed that this is where the four tones system of the Chinese Language was invented, and it is where the artists and the literati class produced masterpieces of Chinese art and literature from the time of the dynasties of the Tang, Yuan and Ming. It fell to the
Japanese invaders on December 13, 1937. What really happened after the city fell to the Japanese? Chang's book is to be seen as an effort to answer this question which historians have often left unanswered; perhaps for reasons not unconnected with the restoration of the old rulers of Japan to power by the United States at the start of the Cold War.
Chang's book is divided into 10 sections and each section is as grasping and thought provoking as it could be. But I personally found the fourth, fifth and the sixth sections the most fascinating. The first three chapters talk about the historical background that led to the attack on China, the Japanese march towards Nanking after the fall of Shanghai, and the fall of Nanking itself. The fourth section gives the details of the heinous Japanese war crimes in Nanking. The fifth section sets out the accounts of foreign witnesses present at the time. Of particular interest was the role played by John Rabe, a German national and an employee of the Siemens groups in China (and a Nazi party member!), who was central to the attempt to help Chinese civilians escape the Japanese brutality by setting up the Nanking Safety Zone. Also of interest is the
story of American missionary Professor Wilhelmina Vautrin, who set up a camp to protect Chinese women from being raped by Japanese soldiers. The sixth chapter, entitled "What the world knew," gives readers an idea of how the Japanese aggression was covered in the world media at the time and how the Japanese government spread propaganda to counter the criticism of the world community. It contains rare historic photographs of the Japanese atrocities which are excruciating to look at, but serve
as unanswerable proof of the Japanese war crimes. The remaining chapters deal with the
aftermath of the massacre, about the proceedings of the International War Tribunal for the Far East held in Tokyo and the proceedings that took place in the People's Republic of China, and also with the Japanese government's denial of the entire episode.
This book is not to be seen merely as a critique of the Japanese government and its war time policies, and still less as a justification of the nuclear atrocity committed upon innocent Japanese civilians in 1945. Japan was not the only country to be affected from the madness that was in the air during the Second World War. The forgotten holocaust
of Nanking is just an example of many holocausts which took place around the world during the Second World War, and are yet to be researched and brought to the attention of the world community. It is fitting that the Japanese army has never been recreated, and indeed is banned by the Japanese constitution. I can only hope that this book will serve to argue against the persistent voices inside Japan that want to change their constitution and recreate their army. And perhaps I can even hope that before they die the aging survivors of the rape of Nanking will one day get the formal apology the Japanese government has so far denied them.
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 25-Mar-03 12:34 AM
****
By posting the above article, I am by no means, implying that the situation in Iraq is like this/will be like this. So far, the patience and humanity shown and exercised by the coalition forces have been commendable and there's no doubt, that tehy will keep on treating the innocent Iraqis in line with the Geneva Convention's article 3 and other related articles.
This article was published in Nov 2000 in The Kathmnadu Post Review of Books.
As always, constructive criticism very welcome.
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| Carnation |
Posted
on 25-Mar-03 09:56 AM
Isolated Freak Jii:
Thanks!!! It is an informative read on the conveniently over looked non-European genocide&heart rendering sliver of horrors, over looked and un punished due to post war politics and the rise of communist China.
Instead of making Japan accountable, China used these acts of sheer atrocities on their civilians as a political football to shape their international and domestic policy. I have read it somewhere that the political need of China to cosy up with Japan even prevented the survivors from presenting petitions demanding compensations during the 80s
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| isolated freak |
Posted
on 25-Mar-03 10:31 AM
Thanks!!! It is an informative read on the conveniently over looked non-European genocide&heart rendering sliver of horrors, over looked and un punished due to post war politics and the rise of communist China.
********
Thanks for your comments. I am of the same opinion . Due to a leftists movement in Japan and China's emergence as the biggest communist nation, the US just didn't let the incidents such as the Nanking massacre published and brought to the attention of the world community.
I also agree with you when you say that the Chinese govt. itself barred the survivors from filing for compensations. The Soviet Threat during the late 70s and throughout the 80s kept Japan and China on friendly terms. However, after the disintegration of the USSR, these issues related to japanese atrocities have started to resurface in China. Actually the State itself is publishing articles on newspapers to "make the public aware" of the Nanjing massacre. When the book "the rape of nanking'" was out, I was in shanghai, and almost everyday, the People's Daily or the China Daily would have an article praising that book and the author for being a true Chinese daughter.
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