Nanjing Massacre

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Your Trail history > Nanjing Massacre Table of Contents [show]     1 Background     2 What Happened     3 There Is More Beyond Blood       3.1 To the Chinese and the Japanese       3.2 To the Chinese       3.3 To the Japanese       3.4 To the Americans, the Europeans, and all the good people from around the world     4 Materials on Nanjing Massacre Keywords Hideki Tojo, Nanjing, Yangtze River, Yasukuni Shrine Copyright Information All rights reserved by the author of this article. Some of the images in this article may have different copyright licenses. Please follow the URLs of the images for detailed information about their specific copyright licenses. Contact webmasters for more information on copyright issues. Picture showing two Japanese soldiers competing who could decapitalize 100 people first. This news was originally reported by a Japanese newspaper called 'Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun' (Forerunner of Mainichi Shimbun) in Dec 13th, 1937. Both soldiers were tried for their actions and were executed on January 28, 1948. 1 Background Jul 7th, 1937, the Battle of the Lugou Bridge marked the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War which later became part of the second world war. Driven by their desperate desire for resources on the mainland[*1], the Japanese war machine ran over a major portion of northern and south-eastern China in less than six months. 2 What Happened At the end of 1937, the Japanese army reached Nanjing, then Capital of Republic of China, a beautiful city lying peacefully beside the Yangtze River for thousands of years. The Chinese National Army retreated from the city, and the Japanese army entered an almost "resistance-free" city. [FD] The rest is well-known history: In the next few months, hundreds of thousands of [*2] civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed: along the Yantze river, in the so-called safety zones, and all around the city[CC] [CN]. The evidence? piles and piles of skeletons that have been and are being discovered from around the city; Indisputable recounts from eye-witnesses... this list could go on and on.[CC] 3 There Is More Beyond Blood Nanjing Massacre is beyond human imagination. Many historian are still researching how a country of human beings could have done such ferocious, salvagious killings to another nation, even in time of war. 3.1 To the Chinese and the Japanese Nanjing Massacre is a tragedy and shame to the Chinese people, it is also a shame to the Japanese. However, a great nation doesnot have to have a perfect past, but a great nation has to remember history and learn from it. 3.2 To the Chinese The only way to avoid tragedies like this to happen again is to be strong and united. 3.3 To the Japanese Do not ever forget about what you did. Denial is not the answer. It's not about a single incident, it's about the future of Japan. War could destroy the Japanese in the second world war, it could destroy you again. If you do not remember history, next time you won't be so lucky to see another cold war. 3.4 To the Americans, the Europeans, and all the good people from around the world I read this from a reader review from Amazon: Reviewer: Katie "sporkgoddess" (Appleton, Wisconsin United States) I have studied Japanese war crimes a great deal; I consider myself almost an unofficial student of them. I do not deny that they happened and I think it is sad that some people do. Though I do think that people just need to give Japan a break; we've forgiven Germany, haven't we? We all know "To err is human, to forgive is devine", but the assumption here is: they have to realize they did wrong before we could even think about forgiving them, or else it doesnot make sense to forgive. OK, here is the huge difference between the Germans and the Japanese: Do the Germans have a shrine that has Hitler's name in it? If you are not sure, here is the answer: no, they do not. How about the Japanese? Well, have you ever heard about Yasukuni Shrine? Did you know that Hideki Tojo's name is also in there? 4 Materials on Nanjing Massacre Web Site: Nanking 1937 at Princeton. Book: The rape of nanking by Iris Chang. Book: The Good Man of Nanking : The Diaries of John Rabe by John Rabe Pictures: http://news.tom.com/pic/datusha/ (For children under 18, parent discretion is advised) Online Book: Judgment International Military Tribunal for the Far East Footnotes [*1] The area of Japan is about 146 thousand square miles (378k square kilometers), about the size of Montana, US or Yunnan Province, China. The current population of Japan is 127 million as of 2005. [*2] this number ranges from about 100,000 to 340,000 Comments #1, at Apr 26, 2006 01:34:35, War Sucks said: Some background about Yasukuni Shrine (from wikipedia): Yasukuni Shrine was originally constructed in June 1869 by order of the Meiji Emperor to commemorate the victims of the Boshin War. It was one of the principal shrines associated with State Shinto. Originally named Tōkyō Shōkonsha (東京招魂社), the shrine was renamed Yasukuni Jinja in 1879. The shrine has performed Shinto rites to house the kami (spirits) of all Japanese and former colonial soldiers (Korean and Taiwanese) who have died in conflicts since then. It also enshrines any members of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces who have died on duty. In regard to the Boshin War and South West War, dead from Tokugawa Shognate (particularly from Aizu province) and Satsuma province are not enshrined because they are considered enemies of the emperor. This exclusion is deeply resented in both provinces. It should be noted that enshrinements are carried out unilaterally by the Shrine. Some families have requested that their members should be delisted. The Yasukuni priesthood has turned down such requests, stating that once a kami is enshrined, it has been 'merged' and cannot be separated. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the US-led Occupation Authorities ordered Yasukuni to either become a secular government institution, or a religious institution that is independent from the Japanese government. Yasukuni chose the latter. Since that time, Yasukuni has been privately funded. The shrine honors as kami the spirits of those who have fought on behalf of the emperor, regardless of whether they died in combat. Still, about 1,000 of the enshrined spirits were POWs executed for war crimes during World War II. The main criterion for enshrinement for war dead is that a person should be listed as having died while on duty (including death from illness or disease) in the war dead registry of the Japanese government. The Japanese government lists all executed A, B, and C class war criminals as such for technical reasons to ensure that the remaining family members can receive a pension. On October 17, 1978, 14 Class A war criminals (according to the judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East), including Hideki Tojo, were quietly enshrined as "Martyrs of Shōwa" (昭和殉難者 Shōwa junnansha), ostensibly on the technicality that they were on the registry References [CC] http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/njmassac/ [CN] http://www.cnd.org/njmassacre/ [FD] http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nanjing+Da+Tusha