History will never forget the pain because it takes an ethnic or even a nation to remember it. The Nanjing Massacre, which is my home country’s pain and shame, is not going to be forgotten and ignored either. The Raping of Nanking by Iris Chang, a Chinese American writer has reshaped my view on the atrocities the Japanese soldiers had committed and raises a question: Why we need to remember the past and face it? Remembering history does not just mean to be blocked by the past and stop moving on but looking for the lessons the history has taught us and prevent the world from making the same mistakes again.
The Rape of Nanking uses Nanjing Massacre as the core and analyzes the holocaust from the national perspective of China, Japan and Western countries; it also analyzes this piece of history that has been distorted for half of the century. The book is divided into two parts; the author starts the first part by explaining the Japanese bushido spirit and how it was forced to open the country to others, from the Meiji Restoration to enhancing the troops; from tasting the sweetens of external expansion to the depression of international exclusion; from the earthquake disaster to the economic crisis and then expanded its military and the reasons to invade China; it explains how the Japanese soldiers were divided into three groups and invaded Nanjing and when they got there how did they killed the Chinese soldiers and citizens and raped the Chinese ladies and she also mentions the matter of comfort women to bring in the issue and analyzes the motivation for the massacre. Nanking was in great chaos at that time and even the infants could not escape from the disaster. Chang also analyzes the Chinese tragic massacre scene by showing how the...
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...target to escape and even held a competition of the person who kills 100 people first will win the game. The Japanese keeps denying their actions and refuse to give an official apology to all the offenders. Their officials go to shrine to pay homage on their so-called heroes, ignoring how these “heroes” have deeply injured the Chinese. During the Holocaust, alive human beings were taken to the chamber of gas and organs were taken to do the experiment. How the Nazi treated the Jewish was similar to how the Japanese treated the Chinese.
“ the Japanese bury alive, castrate and burn human’s fresh”, history could not be past and should be remembered and taking serious by all of us, racial discrimination and mass killing depending on the races should never happen again in our civilized world.
The lessons were bitter and painful and were exchanged by millions of lives.
“The Death of Woman Wang”, written by Chinese historian Jonathan Spence, is a book recounting the harsh realities facing citizens of Tancheng country, Shandong Province, Qing controlled China in the late 17th century. Using various primary sources, Spence describes some of the hardships and sorrow that the people of Tancheng faced. From natural disasters, poor leadership, banditry, and invasions, the citizens of Tancheng struggled to survive in a devastated and changing world around them. On its own, “Woman Wang” is an insightful snapshot of one of the worst-off counties in imperial Qing China, however when taking a step back and weaving in an understanding of long held Chinese traditions, there is a greater understanding what happened in
In 1937, Japan started a war against China, in search of more resources to expand its empire. In 1941, during World War II, Japan attacked America which is when the Allies (Australia, Britain etc.) then declared war on Japan. Before long the Japanese started extending their territory closer and closer to Australia and started taking surrendering troops into concentration camps where they were starved, diseased and beaten. When they were captured, one survivor reports that they were told
Chapter one, The Observers, in the Death of Woman Wang demonstrates the accuracy of the local historian; Feng K'o-ts'an, who compiled The Local History of T'an-ch'eng in 1673. The descriptive context of the Local History helps the reader to understand and literally penetrate into people's lives. The use of records of the earthquake of 1668, the White Lotus rising of 1622 and rebels rising vividly described by Feng the extent of suffering the people of T'an-ch'eng went through. Jonathan Spence stresses on how miserable the two-quarter of the seventeen-century were to the diminishing population of the county. The earthquake claimed the lives of nine thousand people, many others died in the White lotus rising, hunger, sickness and banditry. P'u Sung-ling's stories convey that after the loss of the wheat crops there were cases of cannibalism. On top of all of this came the slaughtering of the entire family lines by the bandits. The incredible records of women like Yao and Sun in the Local History present the reader the magnitude of savagery the bandits possessed. All of these factors led to the rise of suicides. The clarity of events Spence given to the reader is overwhelming.
The tragic event occurred because Japanese soldiers were taught that the Chinese people were inferior and a lesser people. The soldiers had learned this from the bushido code. Originally, the bushido code was for Japan’s samurai class to guide them to chivalry and honor. The code was modified so that it, “emphasized fanatical devotion to the state, aggression, lack of concern for self, disdain for Japan’s enemies, and the glory inherent in fighting and dying for the Japanese emperor” (The Rape of Nanking). This new modification discarded the codes of chivalry and compassion. Th...
Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary source students may use to enable them to understand institutions like conflicting views Whites by the Japanese, the role of women, and the population’s analysis of the Emperor.
...nited States apologized for their actions consistently and offered money to cover the wounds of hundreds forever scarred with agony from these passing years. Entitling emotional distress upon Japanese-Americans. Money cannot cover up near death experiences that had existed in the internment camps. Having been treated like rodents, fed small proportions of meals and disturbing shelter circumstances. They tried their best to recreate what was taken away from them but nothing would ever be the same. The disturbing reality of this has been repeated throughout history in foreign affairs and in U.S history. The United States prides themselves in being a nation of freedom and equality, unable to learn from ongoing discrimination between race and ethnicity, but never again will this happen to the recovering Japanese- Americans that faced true brutality from their own people.
The past is something we try to forget about. Whether good or bad, we always disguise the truth and frame it innocent. When the United States dropped an atomic bomb in the city of Hiroshima Mr. Akihiro Takashi, and many others, could never imagine a horrific event happening to them. This tragedy killed seventy to eighty thousand people leaving another seventy thousand injured. A half-century later most people do not recognize the traumatizing misfortune the survivors suffered. The United States concealed the vile catastrophe they did. A false face will always cover this experience the Japanese coped with.
Their loyalty was questioned, they had to suffer. They were betrayed, they had to stay in camp in fear and anguish. All the suffering that Japanese American had to face shows that America is not a paradise, America can make people feel so bad, though there is hope for good life in people. Racism is the foundation for hate and anger and which would later turn into action. In shirt there was a combination of racism and anger that lead Japanese Americans into the horrors of the internment camps. There are no cities or states like this in United States anymore. It was very heart breaking situation but this should always be included in United States history, so that our next generation will never forget what Japanese Americans had to go through. At this point in history of United States, what we can see is that white people are discriminating, ignoring Japanese people. They are following racism. They are practicing “Defense against Difference”, which is Milton Bennett saying. The people from United States, white people are showing differentiation between them and Japanese, they are showing difference between two culture and they are thinking whites are more superior to Japanese culture. I have learned a lot about intercultural sensitivity this semester. This assignment gave me opportunity to not only evaluate intercultural stages but I got to learn about the other cultures. I have learned that everybody should accept other culture and respect them. If we are aware of the history of Japanese Americans, everyone will be educated and there will be no chances of repeating the same history
The dropping of the atomic bombs had led to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese citizens. When the bombs were detonated in
The atomic bombings of Japanese cities and the genocides of the Holocaust are horrific events in human history. Although these events have their differences, they influence the world greatly today because they differ from each other to provide comparisons for history, have significance because of the survivors who tell their personal story, and achieve significance morally as well as immorally.
This is exactly why the war became so brutal. Atrocities that were unthinkable to Americans became reality with just enough racial discrimination and propaganda. The Japanese did everything they could to promote and prove to themselves that they were the master race and all other races were just outsiders, some human and some nonhuman. Americans believed most nonwhite races were so inferior they were comparable to species less than human. Stereotypes, propaganda, and prejudice caused the Americans and the Japanese to decrease to worth of the lives of their enemies,; and therefore justified their brutish
Chinese Cinderella is a compelling autobiography by Adeline Yen Mah, a struggling child, yearning for acceptance and love in her dysfunctional family. In this novel of “a ‘secret story of an unwanted daughter”, Adeline presents her stepmother Niang, as a violent, impatient, biased, domineering and manipulative demon. Analysing the language used by the author, we can discover how effectively she does this.
When we encounter a Holocaust survivor, a lot of questions come to our mind. We start to wonder how did they manage to survive. We tend to assume that once the Holocaust was over, survivors began to reestablish their lives and their pain disappeared. However, Holocaust survivors suffered, and even after 70 years after the liberation, Holocaust survivors still experience difficulties on their day-to-day basis. In the years followed the Holocaust they struggled with their painful memories while attempting to renew their lives, most of them in new countries. The Holocaust was one of the greatest massacres against humanity. As time goes by, the Holocaust survivors’ memories start to fade. The obligation to remember is engraved on every Holocaust memorial, but even words “Never Forget” become wearing eventually. With the fear of future generations forgetting the Holocaust, these survivors bare witness in many ways. One of the ways Holocaust survivors bare witness was by literature and education.
Is it because he was a woman that he cried out at the sight of a child being harmed? Did he not cry out at the death of his wife because she was a woman? The role of the female in this story reveals a sense of inferiority towards women. These questions that the story raises show how women were viewed as inferior and weak in the eyes of the Chinese culture.
The Japanese leaders had different methods of killing that were instructed to the soldiers. However, the prisoners of this “City of Blood” soon found their liberation and their justice was served. The Japanese saw China as the place to spread their imperial and expansionist objectives. A rough estimate of 300,000 Chinese men and women died in the six weeks after December 13, 1937 (Jones). Around 20,000 women from ages 8 to 70 were raped by Japanese soldiers (Scarred).