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Strongly support to have a remembrance week of Nanjing Massacre! If you believe you are Canadianized already, please start to love your own nation. Western cultures are based on nations... Whereas Chinese culture is based on civilization...
The Forgotten Holocaust
by Laura Rivera
This paper addresses one of the holocausts
during World War II--the forgotten holocaust. As
you will read, this paper briefly describes the
atrocities that occurred in Nanjing, China. Not
many know or understand what really happened
in this city. Hopefully, this paper can give those
who do not know about "The Forgotten
Holocaust" some knowledge of this sad and
historical true story.
When someone mentions the word holocaust,
most often people will relate that word with the
Germans and Jews during World War II. When
Japan is mentioned, the first things that come to
mind are the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. The Nanjing Massacre is known as
the forgotten holocaust and very oddly, it truly has
been forgotten. In this forgotten holocaust, three
hundred thousand people were brutally murdered
and 20,000 women were raped in the city of
Nanjing, during the years of 1937-1938 (Yao).
The Chinese Nationalist Government moved the
capital of China from Peking to Nanjing in 1928.
Nanking's population in the mid 1930s was well
over one million, mainly because many refugees
were fleeing from the Japanese army that had
invaded China in 1931. Japan had entered China
and other parts of Asia before World War II
began, and didn't stop until the U. S. dropped the
atomic bombs on Japanese soil in early 1945. It is
said that the Japanese military machine was
motivated by the aggression and uncontrollable
desire for expansion and imperialism. On
December 9, 1937, Chinese troops surrendered in
the city of Nanjing, followed by a massive
Japanese attack on the city (Yao).
For the next six weeks, this capital was filled with
brutal, unhuman, and terribly violent acts now
Holocaust Essays: The Forgotten Holocaust http://remember.org/imagine/china.html
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known as the Nanjing Massacre. The Japanese
committed venomous acts against innocent
civilians, Chinese soldiers, refugees, and many
others. The crimes ranged from mass execution to
burning, raping, and looting. On December 13,
many of the refugees tried to flee for their lives by
crossing the Yangtze River. When they arrived at
the river there was no type of transportation for
them to cross. The Japanese arrived and when
many of them tried to swim the river, the
Japanese started to fire at the people in the river
and along the banks of the shore. When it was all
over, one Japanese solider reported that the river
was covered with women, men, and children of all
ages, totaling more than 50,000 bodies. Within
two days, the streets of Nanjing were called the
"streets of blood," as dead human corpses began
to cover the streets. Because the streets were
piled with dead bodies, the Japanese had people
dig huge ditches in the earth and dump
hundreds, sometimes even thousands of bodies
into these grave pits (Yao).
The Japanese would arrest and murder anybody
thought to be a Chinese soldier. The safety zones
that were set up to protect some of the citizens
and refugees were raided and men were dragged
out to be killed or were, more often that not, shot
on the spot. Large numbers of young men were
dragged out of the city to be massacred.
Sometimes, they would take anywhere from
several thousand to tens of thousands at one
time. These mass executions were mostly done
by machine guns and, in most cases, those who
were still breathing were bayoneted one by one.
There were even some instances where the
Japanese would pour gasoline on these people
and burn them alive. It was once reported that
they poured gasoline on a group of people tied
together and shot at them, watching the bullets
strike their bodies, then catch fire (Gray).
Many atrocities were committed in and around the
city, most of them against civilians. The Japanese
soldiers thought that killing these innocent people
were fun and games. They invented new ways to
brutally murder these people. Some of these
violent acts included stabbing, shooting, burning,
gutting, excavating the heart, decapitation,
drowning, punching the body and eyes with an
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awl, castration, and even punching or stabbing
objects into the females vaginas (Yao).
Another name for this forgotten holocaust is "The
Rape of Nanjing." Such a title is appropriate for
all the raping that occurred in six weeks, when
approximately 20,000 women were raped. The
Japanese soldiers were such brutes, that if they
didn't rape the women in their homes they would
take the women out in the streets and rape them,
very often heartlessly killing them afterwards.
They would often kill them by stabbing them with
bayonets in the vagina or slicing open their
stomachs. Many of these women that were raped
were left on the streets with their genitals hanging
out and some sort of object sticking out of their
vagina. They would rape pregnant women and
cut open their bellies, take out the fetus and play
with it as if it was a football. They made fathers
rape daughters, and sons rape mothers, and if
they objected to this, they were instantly killed.
Women of all kinds and ages were raped. They
raped seventy year-old women, nine year-old
girls, nuns, and high class wives. Many of the
young and pretty girls were taken from their
families and homes for days. They would even
storm into the safety zones and take women by
hundreds at a time. The Japanese would gang
rape women up to twenty times a day. When
these women returned, they would often fall into
a state of depression or they would commit
suicide from shame (Gray).
The Japanese did not only commit inhumane acts
in Nanjing, but their brutal actions spread all over
Asia. The Japanese government knew what was
happening in Nanjing from the protests that were
made by the Japanese Embassy. Yet they did
nothing to stop the cruel behavior. Now, the
Japanese government denies that such
massacres were actually committed in Nanjing.
They say it is a story made up by the Chinese,
the "Nanjing Massacre never occurred" (Yao). If
this story is a lie, then why and how did so many
people die? Why are there pictures taken of these
brutal acts by the Japanese soldiers? What about
the Japanese confessions and their diaries to
prove all the things they did? What about the
hundreds of thousands of people who witnessed
these crimes? What about the trials where many
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of the high ranking soldiers were found guilty and
punished for their injustices? There is too much
evidence against the Japanese soldiers to deny
such cruelties (Gray).
During World War II, so many horrible acts were
committed against the innocent. When it was all
over, the bodies were countless as well as the
tears shed around the world. The Japanese stole
the lives of many, and at the same time killed
millions of innocent people. The horrible memory
of the Nanjing Massacre still lives with many of
those who survived through it. With all that
happened in such a short amount of time, it's a
shame that the Nanjing Massacre is labeled the
forgotten holocaust--not only forgotten, but
denied by the Japanese executioners.
WORKS CITED
Gray, Robert P. "Japanese Imperialism and the
Massacre in Nanjing." February 1996.
http://www.cnd.org:8019/NJMassacre/njm
tran/njm-intr.htm
Yao, Ming-Hui. "Basic Facts on the Nanjing
Massacre and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial."
September 1993.
http://www.cnd.org:8019/NJMassacre
/nj.html#FWD
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发表于 2012-11-13 08:49:27
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