THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NANJING MASACRE AND HOW JAPAN HAS ACTED AFTER THE EVENT
Seth Linder
HST_103_56
October 31, 2017
The Nanjing Massacre or often called the Rape of Nanking was a horrifying time for the Chinese people. The citizens of Nanjing were brutally raped and killed including soldiers, women, children and even elders. The Nanjing Massacre was all done during World War II from the infamous Japanese soldiers. The Chinese government gave up on protecting its city and borders letting the Japanese come in and do as they please to the people of Nanjing. The Chinese government and military gave Nanjing a death wish as they did not allow the people to flee with them. Now, in today's’ era, China remembers and does not take the matter of what Japan did to them lightly. The reason for this is that Japan has an enormous ego and will not admit to their brutality nor will they admit that they did anything wrong. Therefore, it is tough for China and Japan to cooperate on some issues because of the lack of reconciliation between countries.
To begin, one must first know why the Japanese came to Nanjing. Nanjing is a city on the west part of China only a couple of hundred miles out from the border of Shanghai. During WWII Japan was part of the Axis which included Germany and Italy. Japan wanted to increase their empire by spreading their teachings and gaining more and more land throughout their campaign. On that trail to acquire more land was China, one of Japan's neighboring Countries. Japan struggled to defeat the Chinese Front in Shanghai, demoralizing the army and Japanese citizens. In the Book, The Rape of Nanking Chang says, "In the 1930s, Japanese military leaders had boasted-and seriously believed-that Japan could conquer all of mainland China within three months. But when a battle in a single Chinese city alone fragged from summer to fall, and then from fall to winter, it shattered Japanese fantasies of an easy victory." Finally, once Japan had broken through and won on the first front, they had marked their next attack on Nanjing. The government of China knew they would be incapable of holding Nanjing, so they left only a small number of soldiers behind to protect the city from the incoming Japanese. Once Japan had breached through into the city, there was nothing left for the people of Nanking to do other than greeting the Japanese soldiers, only hoping to find refuge and remorse, because their government and army left them there to die. However, this was not the case. The first thing the Japanese did was slaughter and kill anyone on sight. They raped and murdered thousands and thousands of people, approximately 30,000 to 80,000 women were raped, and the Japanese soldiers killed a total of around 300,000 people. The attack on Nanjing was a very gruesome and terrifying moment for the Chinese people. They were humiliated, beaten, killed, raped and slaughtered by the Japanese. To this day China remembers what happened to them in the 1930's to 1940’s and does not forgive the Japanese for it, and one of the main reasons for it is that Japan has neglected to apologize or even acknowledge what they did to the people of Nanjing.
The Japanese attitude toward the event of Nanjing has not been ideal over the past 70 years. Many confrontations have occurred against China's government and people with the Japanese government and people. Japan even at one point denied that the Nanking massacre never happened and that it was just the interpretations of frightened Chinese women and men from Nanjing. This assumption from Japan has rowdily caused historians from around the world but specifically the Asian area to study this matter. Fortunately, most of the incident has recovered through women's stories of how they were treated and others as well as journals/diaries of Japanese soldiers. In the book Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity by Masahiro Yamamoto describes the event of Nanjing as a terrible act by the Japanese. Masahiro often refers to the massacre as a parallel to the Nazi Holocaust. There was so much death and extreme unnecessary killings that it is hard not to agree that the Nanjing Massacre was a mini-Holocaust. Though Japan had taken a while to succumb to their arrogance on the matter of Nanjing, they finally admitted to their wrongdoings.
It was not till the 50-year anniversary of WWII that Japan finally apologized for their actions during the Nanking Massacre. Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in a statement marking the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender said, “In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I regard, in a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology.” Ever since Prime Minister Tomiichi came out and apologized every ten years so far, the next Prime Minister has apologized for Japan's part of WWII which included the Nanjing Massacre. Just this past year for the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his condolences. He said, "My dear friends, on behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I offer with profound respect my eternal condolences to the souls of all American people that were lost during World War II. Our actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries. We must not avert our eyes from that.” Shinzo did not directly come out and say sorry for the destruction of Nanjing, however, he did say that he was sorry to all the souls lost during the Asian and American wars. Japan gives a prime example of how time can heal all wounds, through Japan finally finding courage on unraveling their past, opening up and admitting to their faults. However, now Japan would like to move on from the past because, "History is harsh. What is done cannot be undone.”
Japanese culture does not like to admit to their mistakes from past to present. However, they have acknowledged their wronging’s of WWII and what they did to Nanjing. Personally, Japan took a very long time to admit to these events, especially in China, which is very unsettling. Japan should have shown some remorse before their first apology before the mark of the 50-year anniversary of the end of WWII. However, Japan does not still need to keep apologizing every year. As Prime Minister said in his 70th-anniversary speech since the surrender of Japan he said, “we must not let our children, grandchildren, and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologise’.” The history of what happened in WWII and Nanjing should never be forgotten, but it should be forgiven. People cannot move forward if all they do is hold on to something that happened in the past. Therefore, China and Japan should resolve their differences with each other over what happened over 70 years ago, and focus on the present and what is good for the people of today.
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