The Rape of Nanking 2
During World War II, six million European Jews died in the Nazi extermination camps and millions of others lost their lives in Europe, the Soviet Union, and North Africa. At the same time in Asia and the Pacific, a similar case of inhumane slaughter was committed (Shi Young xv). Millions of Chinese,Filipinos, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Thai, and others died at the hands of the Japanese perpetrators. Over the years, many books, documentaries, museum exhibits, and films have been created to talk about World War II. Most of them seem to remember and tell the story of the Jewish Holocaust and the Nazi war crimes. However, very little has been published about the Nanking Massacre and the Japanese war crimes. Is it because that after this massacre, a civil war broke out in China, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the continuing cold war? Over the years, it seems as though the outside world has forgotten the tragic story of the 30 million Chinese who died as a result of Japan's aggression in World War II. Even in the United States' educational system, very little is taught about the Nanking Massacre. With time less will be remembered about the Nanking Massacre; the Japanese can continue to deny this historical tragedy an
d to distort history. With the truth of the atrocities hidden from Japan and forgotten by the world, the many Chinese victims of the massacre will never receive justice. In order to insure that the future generations will not forget the truth of the past and for the injustices be addressed, this is important that the Nanking Massacre be made a part of the history curriculum in the United States and Japan. Over the years, the Japanese government has excluded the history of the Nanking Massacre from their textbooks in order to cover up the shame and disgrace that they soldiers brought up Japan after committing all those atrocities. But Japan must face its past, as Germany has faced its past . Everyone makes mistakes and mistakes are what you learn from. Japan must admit to their crimes and try to make up for it or else live a lifetime in continuing disgrace. The Nanking Massacre continued for this way for months. The following years were better, but still the Chinese were not at rest (Chang 59). On August 6, 1945, the United States bombed Hiroshima and then on August 9, 1945, Nagasaki, Japan's two most important cities. The Japanese finally surrendered on August 14, 1945 (Chang 168). This was a sign of relief to all of Asia, especially to those in Nanking. The Japanese were also put on trial both in Nanking and in Tokyo. "Although they had changed into civilian clothes, their soldierly bearing readily betrayed their true identity," and day by day, these men were taken away from the Safety Zone (Zhigeng 71). Many of the men were wrongly suspected as soldiers. They were farmers and laborers who had scars on their hands and other signs, which caused them to be suspected as soldiers. These men were all dragged out of the Safety Zone, shot, sabred, used for bayonet practice, or killed by some other method that the Japanese had thought of. Bodies of these victims lay everywhere. "By the side of the pond at Dafanxiang, where there is now a chemical plant, three were piles of dead bodies, all refugees taken from the zone and shot" (Zhigeng 61). Members of the Safety Zone tried to save these men. They would risk their lives to stop the Japanese soldiers. They would go to the Japanese soldiers and plea for mercy to spare the lives of the Chinese (Shi Young 260). Some would even jump in front of the Chinese to save them from being shot. The Japanese injured many of the members on many accounts as well. They were lucky on those accounts to have been foreigners. The Japanese at the time were reluctant to take the lives of foreigners. For John H.D. Rabe, the elected chairman of the International Committee, what saved his life and the lives of many other Chinese civilians was his Nazi armband that had his Nazi decoration, the highest in the country, on it (Zhigeng 74). The irony about this situation is that not even a Nazi soldier would do such a thing. Even the Jewish Holocaust can not compare to the Nanking Massacre (Shi Young 280). Captives from Nanking along with others from all over China were also taken to Headquarters of Unit 731 and Unit 100, near Harbin, China, to be used as "marutas" or logs (human subjects). Here the Japanese injected the victims with all types of diseases like bubonic plague, typhoid, syphilis, cholera, anthrax, etc. to develop weapons of biological warfare (http://www.interlog.com/~yuan/japan.html). The medical researchers would lock up diseased marutas with healthy ones, to see how readily various ailments would spread. The marutas were also routinely dissected alive with out any anesthesia to see the insides of the victims. On January 28, 1932, Japanese operatives near Shanghai stage on January 28, another incident involving a street fight between five Japanese monks and Chinese factory workers. At the same time, the Chinese were boycotting Japanese goods. As a result of these two incidents, the first battle in Shanghai, the "Battle of Shanghai" broke out. For the fir
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4762
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page double spaced)
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